Tetsuna no Basuke
by dragonprincess324
Summary: After the disastrous events of their third year at Teiko, Kuroko Tetsuna leaves her teammates without a word. Now a freshman at Seirin, she meets a certain redhead and the two set out to defeat the Generation of Miracles. Along the way, feelings will be revealed, and they will all be forced to face the consequences of their past actions. (KnB with Fem!Kuroko and love triangle)
1. And Then, an Idea

**After reading several Fem!Kuroko fics and being annoyed that none of them were complete, I've decided to write my own.**

 **Why? Because, apparently, I like to waste time doing random things when I should be doing homework.**

 ***sighs***

 **Anyways, my plan (as far as romance goes) is for there to be a love triangle. I have already decided on the pairing, though I'll keep it secret for now.**

 **I don't know how close to canon I'll stick. I mean, they'll still have the same matches and everything, but I'll change certain details and add subplots when I get the ideas for them.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **A/N: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke**

* * *

 **UPDATED: December 7, 2016**

 **I was unhappy with how this chapter turned out, so I rewrote it. It's now kind of a prologue to the story.**

* * *

Kuroko Tetsuna stood under the cherry blossom tree, watching as clouds drifted across the sunny blue sky. In the distance, the voices of her schoolmates could be heard, cheering and celebrating their long-awaited graduation from middle school. She should've been celebrating with friends, but instead she was standing alone, watching the revelry with a sad gaze.

She was specifically looking at five boys, all with different hair colors that corresponded to their names. They stood apart from the rest, but were being closely by everyone in their vicinity, especially the girls. They were very popular, after all. She was standing far enough away from her that they wouldn't be able to notice her easily, especially given her lack of presence. She could, however, see them very clearly.

Murasakibara stood calmly munching on his snacks, oblivious to the attention he was receiving.

Midorima was adjusting his glasses with his bandaged fingers and holding a rubber duck in his other hand.

Kise grinned and waved at his adoring fans, his smile as cheerful as ever.

Akashi stood watching over the other four with heterochromatic eyes.

And there was Daiki, leaning against a wall with his arms crossed over his chest, a dark frown on his face. He was always frowning nowadays. She couldn't even remember the last time she had seen him smile.

But even though they were all standing together, she could notice the distance between the five of them, a distance that had been growing ever since third year started. It had affected her as well, seeing that she was not standing with her friends but apart. And they would be getting even further apart in the coming school year, when they would each head off to their own high schools, breaking apart their team.

But they had already stopped being a team for quite a while now.

She sighed deeply and turned away from the boys, turning her face back up to the sky. Her musings were interrupted when she noticed a new presence approach her from behind. She knew who it was even without seeing him, though she wasn't quite sure how he had noticed where she was standing.

"Seijuro-kun," she said without turning around.

The boy in question let out a small sigh. "So that's how you're addressing me now? And here I was thinking we were closer than that. Will you be calling Shintaro and the others by their first names as well?"

"You've changed how you address the others," she said flatly, still not looking at him. "Why shouldn't I?"

"I get that you're upset about Daiki," he said smoothly, though his tone was soft. "And I know that you aren't pleased with how the others have been behaving, including me. But are you really just going to leave like this without saying anything? Are you really going to just disappear? They haven't even seen you since _that_ game, you know?"

She turned to him then, eyes narrowed and fists clenched. "So what? They don't need to see me, do they? They don't need—" she cut herself off, fists tightening so hard that she winced when her short fingernails cut into her palm. She was tired and sad and angry, in no mood to be having this conversation. But Akashi wouldn't leave her alone until it was finished, so she let out a long breath and continued in a soft voice, " _He_ doesn't need me anymore. He said as much. And neither do any of you. You all are strong, able to take on any opponents on your own. And what can I do?" The last part was said bitterly as she thought about the growing strength of her teammates—former teammates, now. Their skills had improved faster than she could've imagined, and they had changed in ways that she didn't like, leaving her far, far behind.

Akashi was silent for a while, watching her with those eyes, one gold one red. This, too, was a change that Tetsuna couldn't stand. But as he looked at her with a softened gaze and gave her a gentle smile, she couldn't help but think that the boy from before was still in him. "You have your own brand of strength, Tetsuna," he told her gently.

Then it was her turn to watch him, carefully testing out his words, searching for any signs of falseness and finding nothing. It was enough for her to let out a long breath and offer him a weak smile. "Thanks, Sei-chan."

His smile widened just a little when she called him that. "Will you come say goodbye to the others at least? We won't be seeing each other for a while after this."

That was true. Though Kise, Midorima, and Daiki would all be staying in Tokyo, Akashi and Murasakibara were going to be leaving the city. She looked at her redheaded childhood friend, thinking about how he would be leaving for Kyoto soon. They had grown up together, side by side, just like siblings. Even during these past few months when she hadn't been speaking to Kise, Midorima, Muraskibara, or even Daiki, she had still spoken to Akashi, albeit less than usual. Him leaving and not being within walking distance would take some getting used to.

"I don't know what to say to them at this point," she said to him. "With everything that has happened, I'm not sure I really _want_ to talk to them right now, especially Daiki."

"I understand," he said. He began to walk away but looked back after taking a few steps. "Tetsuna, I know things are difficult now, but at least consider my idea."

She sighed, at that, watching as Akashi headed back to the others. She had flat out rejected it when he first told her that he wanted them all to go to separate high schools and face each other on the court as opposing teams. At that point, she had already cut off contact between herself and the others. The others, however, had decided to go along with Akashi's idea.

Sighing again, she spared one last look towards her five friends, gaze lingering a little longer on a certain blue-haired ace, and turned away and began to walk home.

* * *

Tetsuna watched as a group of children ran up and down the small basketball court, dribbling the ball and making shots. They laughed gleefully as they moved, smiling even when their shots didn't make it in the basket. She stared at the children longingly, remembering simpler times.

She missed the times when she and her team would meet up at a court like this and just toss the ball around. Not to prepare for an upcoming match, but just to have fun with each other. But as her teammates grew stronger, they no longer wanted to spend time of playing for fun. Instead, they played to win, not caring about anything else but their victory. She hated that they had become like that. She hated it so much that she had left.

The children yelled cheerfully as one of their friends made a basket, grinning widely. They didn't even seem to be keeping score. It was simply just for fun.

"Why did things have to become like this?" she murmured, lowering her gaze as a wave of sadness flooded over her.

The school year had ended, and her teammates were going in their separate ways. They would be joining new teams and playing against each other. Akashi wanted her to do so as well, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She didn't want to play against her former teammates. She wanted to play _with_ them the way they used to, cheerful and carefree.

But they were all so strong now, not even needing a team to win. And she was the same as ever, a shadow who could only pass the ball to her teammates.

 _You have your own brand of strength._

Akashi's words from earlier. He had looked so much like the way he used to be when he said those words, like the boy he had been before his left eye bled from red to gold. But when he spoke those words…

She realized right then—standing outside the basketball court and thinking of her friend's kind words—that he was still there. The boy she had grown up with and known for all her life was still there, even if he had changed. She could see it in his gentle concern that hadn't changed in the slightest since they were children.

And if that held true for him, maybe it did for the others as well?

And then, an idea.

Tetsuna thought of her friends, the ones that she had spent her middle school years with, played on the same basketball team with. They all meant so much to her, and it hurt her to see them like this, growing distant and apart. But if a part of them remained that could remember the way things used to be, maybe she could bring them back. Maybe she could fix this rift that had appeared between them and make things go back to the way they used to be.

Tetsuna reached into her school bag and took out the brochure for the high school she had chosen, Seirin. The school had a basketball team, though it was newly formed. But Tetsuna remembered seeing them once, all together and laughing. They were new and not too strong, but they were a team, supporting each other and helping out their teammates instead of playing on their own.

When she chose Seirin, she didn't plan on joining their basketball team. She had hated the sport at the time, and she still hated it a little now.

But she would join the team, and she would show her old teammates her basketball.

* * *

Her fingers trembled slightly as she dialed the familiar number. She was excited, more excited than she had been in months. Her new idea was still fresh in her mind, and her determination was overflowing. She brought her cellphone to her ear as it rang, waiting to connect.

"Sei-chan?" she said when her childhood friend picked up after the fourth ring. "About your idea. I'm in. I'll do it."

And she could've sworn that he smiled when she said that.

* * *

 **And that's the first chapter.**

 **Read and review!**

 **Thanks!**


	2. A Promise

**Thanks to everyone who has followed, favorited, or reviewed my story!**

 **A quick note of perspective:**

 **I've noticed that the other fem!Kuroko fics are all written in third person omniscient, which is where the reader hears the thoughts of all characters.**

 **I am currently writing the story in third person limited, where the reader can only tell what the narrator is thinking. That means, when Tetsuna is narrating, the reader will only see what is happening according to her, as well as only knowing her thoughts. When other characters are narrating, the reader will only know what that character is seeing and thinking. This story will have narrators other than Testuna. For instance, Aomine and Kagami both have a perspective in this chapter. However, not all characters will have a perspective, especially the minor ones. Thus, readers will not be able to hear the thoughts of all the characters.**

 **Parts with different narrators will be separated by: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke**

* * *

 **UPADATED: December 7, 2016**

 **I changed Ch1 so I made changes to this chapter as well.**

 **(Basically i just combined the old ch1 and this chapter. Ch1 is now a prologue(ish) to the story.)**

* * *

Kuroko Tetsuna snuck glances at her new teammate, Kagami Taiga. The red-head was currently devouring a pile of hamburgers. How one person could eat so much so quickly was beyond her. Her lips quirked up into a half smile as she sipped the vanilla milkshake she had purchased earlier and took a bite out of the burger that Kagami had given her earlier, telling her that he disliked guys who sucked at basketball, but that she had earned it after their victory against the second years.

Kagami finally finished inhaling the burgers and looked up to find Tetsuna still staring at him.

"What?" he asked, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

Tetsuna raised an eyebrow at that, and said, "Nothing."

The two left Maji's and walked together since their homes were in the same direction. After a few minutes of silence, Kagami asked, "Just how strong are the Generation of Miracles? If I played them now, how would I do?"

"You'd be destroyed instantly," Tetsuna replied immediately. Though she did not change her expression, she mentally smiled as she imagined Kagami facing up against her old teammates. Sure, he was strong and fast, but he wouldn't last long against any of the Miracles.

Kagami was irritated by her deadpan response. "Can't you put it in a different way?" he demanded.

"This year, the five prodigies have each gone on to play for their own schools," Tetsuna said. "Without a doubt, one of those will stand at the top."

"That's great," Kagami replied chuckling as they reached the crosswalk. "That kind of thing lights a fire in me. I've decided. I'll crush all of them and become the best player in Japan."

Tetsuna stared at him for a while in consideration. While she admired his steadfast determination…

"I think that's impossible," she said flatly.

Kagami was clearly irritated at her now. "Hey!" he exclaimed, turning to her with an angry expression on his face.

"I don't know if you have a hidden talent or not, but you wouldn't even be able to reach their feet as you are now." The light at the crosswalk turned green, indicating that they could now cross. _But maybe in the future,_ Tetsuna thought, stepping out onto the street. "It's impossible if you do it alone. I've also decided. I'm a shadow. But the stronger the light, the darker the shadow, and the more it accentuates the light. I will be the shadow to your light and make you the best player in Japan."

Tetsuna tried to ignore the slight pain in her heart as she spoke the words. She believed that this Kagami Taiga had the potential to defeat the Generation of Miracles eventually. If she helped him to do so, she might just show her friends how to have fun while playing basketball again. But even so, calling him her new 'light' only made her think back to her first one: the boy who had been her friend and partner in middle school, only to cast her aside when he became overwhelmed by his power.

"Look who's talking," Kagami said, interrupting her thoughts. "Do whatever you want."

Tetsuna smiled a little. "I'll do my best."

 _After all, this is what I promised I would do._

* * *

Tetsuna couldn't help but wonder if Riko was insane.

She'd called all the first years to the roof at 8:40 in the morning, just five minutes from the morning assembly.

"Now, announce your name, year, class, and goals right here," she said, gesturing towards the gathered students down below. "If you fail to achieve them, you'll come back up here, strip naked, and confess your feelings for the girl you love."

Tetsuna stared blankly at Riko, while Kagami had a confused look on his face. The other three first years all looked horrified at the prospect of having to receive that punishment.

"Although Tetsuna-chan will have a different punishment," Riko amended after seeing the looks the boys were giving the teal-haired girl.

Tetsuna sighed at that, though she was relieved. Because if she were forced to confess her feelings…

She quickly pushed away the thoughts that followed, reminding herself that it was in the past now, and she was starting over again with a new team and a new partner.

"All of the second years did it last year," Riko continued.

"Huh? No one told me about this," Furihata Kouki said.

"I heard about it when they recruited me," Fukuda Hiroshi replied, though his voice was strained.

Kawahara Koichi turned to them and said, "But I didn't think they'd actually…"

"Like I said before," Riko said, getting their attention once more, "I'm looking for something concrete and reasonably ambitious. You'll have to do better than 'play my first game' or 'do my best'."

Although Furihata, Fukuda, and Kawahara were still at a lost for what to do, Kagami stepped forward confidently.

"This'll be easy. It's now even a test," he declared. He walked forward and hopped onto the railing in one fluid motion. He then took a breath and hollered, "Class 1-B, number 5, Kagami Taiga! I'll defeat the Generation of Miracles and become number one in Japan!"

Tetsuna sighed again. Yes, it was rather easy for Kagami. After all, it seemed that he'd set his mind to completing that goal ever since their conversation the other day. Meanwhile, Tetsuna was at a lost for what to say. It wasn't that she didn't have a goal. She did. She just didn't know if she could announce it in front of everyone. Perhaps she could come up with something simpler that still encapsulated her goal.

While she thought about it, the other first years all went and announced their goals. Before she knew it, she was the only one who hadn't said anything. Everyone turned towards her expectantly, but at that moment, a teacher burst onto the roof, stopping them from continuing.

"By the way," Kagami said to her later when they were seated at Maji's burger. "Why didn't you go to a big name school like the other five? You were good enough to be known as the phantom sixth man. Is there a reason you play basketball?"

 _Reason, huh?_ Tetsuna thought. She thought about that time not so long ago when she had hated basketball, when her team had fallen apart and she had lost her dearest person to the sport. She thought of the time before then, when everything was going well and she had truly enjoyed being on the court. At that time, her reason for playing was just that she enjoyed it. Enjoyed the feel of the ball in her hands, the feeling she got when she moved like a shadow through the court, assisting her teammates. But everything was different now. Now, she was playing for a far more serious reason. Not that she would tell Kagami that now.

"My middle school's basketball team had one core principle," she said at last. "'Winning is everything.' Instead of teamwork, we pushed the individual talents of the Generation of Miracles to win. Nothing could beat us, but we weren't a team. The five of them approved, but I felt we lacked something important."

"So, what?" Kagami asked, sounding genuinely curious. "Are you going to beat the Generation of Miracles with your basketball."

Tetsuna could've smiled at that. Though he appeared dumb, the red-head had guessed her goal. However, she kept a neutral expression on her face and said, "That's what I was thinking."

"Seriously?" Kagami said, surprised and disbelieving.

"Yours and Aida-senpai's words really struck me. Now my biggest reason to play is to try to make you and our team the best in Japan." It wasn't a lie, just a half-truth. It was good enough for now, though Tetsuna wondered if Kagami would figure it out eventually.

"We're not going to try," Kagami said, standing up. "We're going to _be_ the best."

She couldn't not smile at that.

* * *

The next morning, a message could be seen written on the school courtyard in white chalk.

It read: _We'll be number one in Japan._

* * *

Tetsuna smiled as her classmates stared at her message. Kagami sent her a look and she nodded at him. He returned her smile then looked back at the message.

Her phone vibrated, indicating that someone had texted her. She took out her phone and her eyes widened when she saw the text.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Aomine Daiki lay on the school roof, looking over the text that his former captain had sent to him and his former teammates. It consisted of just four words and yet conveyed so much more.

 _"Tetsuna is at Seirin."_

"Why Seirin?" Daiki muttered, still staring at the message. Tetsuna was highly skilled at basketball, and could've gone to any school with a powerful basketball team. And yet she had chosen such an obscure no-name school. Could she be trying to avoid her former teammates?

Could she be trying to avoid _him?_

Daiki didn't want to consider that possibility even though it was likely the truth. After all, his last words to Tetsuna had been hateful and cruel. Even though he never wanted to hurt her, he had ended up doing just that. He didn't know if he could ever forgive himself for having done that.

He considered, for a moment, going to see Tetsuna.

But what would he even say? He had tried coming up with an apology ever since their fight and had yet to come up with something that didn't sound pathetic, lame, and insincere. And he was also afraid. Afraid that even if he did apologize, she wouldn't forgive him and would just turn away from him.

He didn't know if he could survive that.

Daiki sighed in resignation and put his phone back into his pocket. He looked up at the sky. There were no clouds today, and the sky was the color of Tetsuna's hair and eyes. He found himself thinking of her again. Her blank expression that she had on most of the time, her amazing skill on the basketball court, and that small, special smile that she showed only to him.

He missed her.

Badly.

 _Does she miss me as well?_ He couldn't help but wonder.

She most likely didn't, but hoping for these things delayed the day when Daiki would acknowledge that he had pushed away the person dearest to him.

"Aomine-kun!" the loud voice of his childhood friend Momoi Satsuki called out, interrupting his thoughts.

He sighed deeply and braced himself for whatever Satsuki had to say to him.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Tetsuna sat on a bench in the changing room, facing away from the boys. Though she had gotten used to seeing boys undress during her days at Teiko and the boys had been used to her presence in the changing room, the boys at Seirin had yet to be fully comfortable with sharing a changing room with a girl.

Tetsuna was looking at the text she had gotten days ago. She let out a tired sigh as she read it over once more.

 _From: Shin-chan_

 _Tsuna-chan._

 _Akashi has informed us that you're at Seirin. Why would you choose to go to such a no-name school? Kise has decided that he want to see you so watch out for that idiot._

 _Anyways, make sure to take care of yourself. While I do not approve of your choice of school, I still care about your wellbeing._

 _So Sei-chan ratted me out, huh?_ Tetsuna mused.

She wondered if telling her childhood friend about going to Seirin was a mistake after all. On one hand, she had known him since they were babies because their parents were close friends. Being an only child, Akashi had been like an older brother to her. Even though she was still mad at him for that one match in their third year at Teiko, he was still her friend. On the other hand, however, telling her friend meant that the rest of her team would find out and come to track her down. She wasn't quite sure if she was ready to face them again. Especially _him_.

But Kise…

Tetsuna sighed again. It wasn't that she particularly disliked Kise or anything. As a matter of fact, the two got along quite well. It was just that the blonde was always super hyper, and would likely question her incessantly on her reasons for leaving the team.

As it stands, Midorima is the only one who knows why Tetsuna left and what had transpired between her and Daiki. She thought back briefly to that rainy day many months ago…

Her thoughts were interrupted by Koganei, who had spotted an issue of _Monthly Basketball Magazine_. "Didn't this come out when Kuroko was at Teiko?"

Hyuuga stood next to Koganei and flipped through the pages. "All the players are featured," he said. "Kuroko…doesn't have an article."

"Even though you're the sixth player," Koganei remarked. "Didn't they come interview you?"

"They did…" Tetsuna trailed off. The interviewer had been rather young, and had taken liking to Tetsuna. He ended up following her around trying to talk to her and had went as far as asking her out. That hadn't sat well with the rest of her teammates. "Well, my teammates weren't too pleased with the reporter, so they took matters into their own hands."

"Besides," Tetsuna continued, "I'm nothing like the other five. They're true prodigies."

Before the juniors could reply, Fukuda burst in. "She's back! The coach is back," he announced. "We're going to play a practice match."

"I wonder who we're playing," Hyuuga remarked.

"Who knows," Fukuda replied. "But she skipping for some reason…"

Hyuuga immediately tensed up, knitting his eyebrows together. "She was skipping?" he exclaimed. "Be ready everyone. If she's skipping, our next opponent's going to be really tough."

Tetsuna thought briefly of that message that Midorima had sent her regarding Kise.

 _Ryou-chan…_

* * *

True to Tetsuna's suspicions, Riko announced their next opponent to be Kaijou High, the school where Kise attended.

"A practice game against Kaijo High School?" Hyuuga exclaimed in shock.

"That's right," Riko replied with a smile. "They won't disappoint us. We'll put plenty of first years on the court."

"Disappoint us?" Koganei said hesitantly. "They're way better than us."

"Are they really that good?" Kawahara asked.

"They're strong at the national level," Hyuuga answered. "They play in the Inter-high every year."

"And this year, Kaijou has one of the Generation of Miracles, Kise Ryouta."

This news was greeted with shock and a bit of fear from everyone except for Tetsuna and Kagami.

Tetsuna could only sigh as she thought of her former teammate. Kagami, meanwhile, looked very excited at the prospect that he'd get to play against one of the Miracles soon. Tetsuna studied the look of anticipation of Kagami's face, though she wasn't surprised to see it. Honestly, what had she been expecting from him anyways?

"Apparently, Kise works as a model," Hyuuga said, much to the shock of his teammates.

"Seriously? Amazing!" Izuki remarked.

"Good looking and skilled at basketball? That's horrible," Koganei said.

"Idiots," Riko said.

"I agree," Tetsuna muttered, though she was fairly amused with her teammates' reactions.

She shared a brief smile with Riko as they watched the boys talk about Kise and Kaijou.

The sounds of conversation brought everyone's attention towards the gym entrance, where a crowd of girls had gathered. Many girls were even standing on the second floor and looking down. In the midst of it all was one Kise Ryouta.

Riko's jaw dropped open in shock. "Huh? What? What are all these people doing here?"

"Uh, I didn't mean for this to happen," Kise muttered.

"That's…" Hyuuga started.

Tetsuna sighed.

Kise had arrived, just like Midorima had predicted he would. She looked over at her teammates who were all still looking at Kise in shock. Whether they were shocked about his sudden arrival or the crowd of girls surrounding him or both, she didn't know. Even Kagami seemed stunned. Seeing as she was the only one who wasn't at a lost for what to do, Tetsuna stepped forward.

"It's been a while," she said.

Kise looked at her in silence for a few moments. Then, a wide grin spread over his face. He handed back to autograph he was signing and pushed through the crowd of girls.

"Tetsunacchi!" he exclaimed and tackled the teal-haired girl with a hug.

"Ryou-chan!" Tetsuna protested, a shocked expression on her face. "Let go of me!"

Kise held onto her for a few more minutes before finally letting go. "Sorry about that. It's just been so long since I've seen you! Akashicchi told me that you were here, but seeing you in person is just so exciting!"

Tetsuna rolled her eyes, though she wasn't as annoyed as she thought she'd be. She'd missed Kise the past few months. Though she wasn't as close to him as she was to Akashi and Daiki, he was still a good friend.

"Anyways, Ryou-chan," Tetsuna said, looking towards the crowd of girls who were all glaring daggers at her. "Your fans are still waiting for you."

"Oh," Kise said bashfully, turning back to his fans. "Sorry, really. Um, do you think you could wait five minutes?

Tetsuna watched as Kise returned to his fans. The crowd of girls was large, and seemed to be growing. It reminded her of their days back at Teiko where all the girls would sneak into the gym to watch them practice. Thus, Tetsuna knew from that that it would take far longer than five minutes for Kise to sign all those autographs.

* * *

Around fifteen minutes later, Kise finally finished signing autographs and approached the members of Seirin's basketball team.

Hyuuga was the first to speak. "What are you doing here?" he stuttered.

"When I heard our next opponent was Seirin, I just had to come here to see Tetsunacchi!" Kise replied merrily. He wrapped her up in another hug, which she also fought off.

Furihata opened up the magazine and read from Kise's article. "Kise Ryota. Though he only started playing basketball in his second year of middle school, his exception athletic ability and instincts got him on the Teiko team as a regular in a heartbeat. While he has less experience that the other four, he's a rapidly improving all-rounder."

"Since your second year of middle school?" Hyuuga asked Kise, astonished.

Kise, who still had one arm draped around Tetsuna's shoulders, chuckled in embarrassment.

"Well, the article exaggerated a lot, really. I'm happy to be called one of the Generation of Miracles, but I'm the worst of the bunch. So they picked on me a lot."

Tetsuna could feel her teammates' gazes going from her to Kise then back to her again. She wondered what they made of the situation. Before anyone said anything else, a basketball came flying out of nowhere and flew towards Kise.

Kise, to his credit caught it immediately.

Tetsuna looked towards the direction the ball came from and saw, unsurprisingly, that Kagami was the one who threw it.

 _Suddenly throwing a ball like that…Doesn't that guy ever think?_ She wasn't exactly annoyed, though Kise seemed to feel differently than her.

He gripped the ball in one hand and faced Kagami. "Ow! What was that for? What if you hit Tetsunacchi?"

"I'm fine, Ryou-chan," Tetsuna said calmly.

"Sorry, Kuroko," Kagami called out to her. "And you, Kise Ryouta. Don't tell me you came all the way out here just to greet us? Why don't you play with me a little, pretty boy?"

"What?" Kise said, unimpressed. "Asking me so suddenly like that…But I just…" he seemed to reconsider for a few moments. "Fine, let's do it. I have to thank you for that display."

He tossed the ball back to Kagami, who caught it with ease.

"Unbelievable," Riko sighed.

Tetsuna nodded in agreement. "This might be bad," she said. Riko seemed confused by the comment, though Tetsuna didn't have a chance to clarify.

Kise, who had removed his blazer, was now facing Kagami. The blonde dribbled the ball a few times, smirking at Kagami. He then dashed past Kagami, who immediately ran after him. Kise then evaded Kagami and jumped up, shooting a basket.

It was an exact imitation of a move that Kagami had performed on Izuki earlier.

"He learns plays as soon as he sees them and makes them his own," Tetsuna explained to her confused teammates. The two continued to play, each move shocking the team even more.

"So this is the Generation of Miracles. Kuroko, your friend's way too good," Kawahara remarked.

Tetsuna only nodded at that, though she was thinking, _I may have underestimated him until now. It's only been a few months since I left them, yet the Generation of Miracles have improved for my quickly than I expected. And if Ryou-chan was improved, Daiki probably has as well. But for Daiki, improving is…_

The match finished, and Kise sighed, seemingly disappointed in Kagami. "I don't know about this," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "After something so disappointing, I can't just leave now." He then turned and walked towards the gathered team. "Give us Tetsunacchi."

"Huh?" Seirin's team chorused.

"Come join us," Kise continued. "Let's play basketball again."

"Ryou-chan…" Tetsuna started hesitantly.

"I'm serious! I really respect you. Besides, it's a waste of your talents to stay here. What do you say?"

Tetsuna crossed her arms. "When Sei-chan told you where I am, did he also tell you to try to recruit me to your team?"

"Huh?" Kise said. Tetsuna studied him for a few minutes, weighing his reaction. He looked genuinely confused.

"I mean, are you asking me that because Sei-chan told you to?"

"No!" Kise protested. "I mean, he is concerned about you, but that's just how he is. This invitation is coming from me and me alone. You're wasting your talent at a school like this. Come to Kaijou with me."

"I am honored to hear you say that," Tetsuna said after a few moments of silence. "But I must respectfully decline your offer."

This only confused Kise even more. "But that doesn't make any sense! This isn't like you at all. Wasn't winning everything to you? Why didn't you go to a stronger school?"

Winning had never been everything to her. To the five Miracles, it was all they could think about. But for Tetsuna, winning had only ever been something extra, something that came as a result of playing hard and working _together._ For her, their teamwork in their early days, the seemingly unbreakable bonds between them, had been everything. However, her former teammates would never understand that. Midorima and Akashi knew of her thinking, but neither accepted it.

She had chosen Seirin because she knew that they were a team who understood and accepted the values of working together as a team. And with this team, she would finally get her friends to acknowledge her way of thinking.

"Things have changed since then," she told Kise at last. "Besides, I've already made a promise with Kagami-kun. A promise to defeat the Generation of Miracles."

"It really isn't like you, making a joke like that," Kise said.

Kagami let out a chuckle then, drawing their attention. He had a super pleased expression on his face as he faced them. "Seriously. What are you saying? That's my line, Kuroko."

"The fact that I'm bad at jokes hasn't changed," Tetsuna told Kise. "I'm serious."

To that, Kise only smirked.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Kagami Taiga sat down at his usual table at Maji's with a tray heaped with a large pile of burgers. He leaned against the back of the chair and sighed deeply.

He'd met one of the Generation of Miracles today.

 _They really are amazing!_ He thought, thinking of how Kise had smoothly copied his movements. _And there are four more guys stronger than him. I getting excited just thinking about meeting them!_

"I wonder what the others are like…" he murmured.

"They're all really strong and each have their own special ability," a familiar voice said.

"Gah!" Taiga exclaimed, realizing that he wasn't alone at the table. Tetsuna was sitting there as well, sipping a vanilla milkshake and looking at him with a blank expression. "Can't you appear normally?"

 _How many times has this happened now, anyways?_

Tetsuna blinked. "I was here first, though."

Taiga frowned as he looked at the teal-faced girl. As usual, it was impossible to tell what she was thinking. He had gotten so used to her lack of expression that it had surprised him to see her smile when Kise had shown up earlier. _Seriously,_ he thought, _what's up with this girl?_

"What do you mean by special ability?" he asked, taking a bite out of a burger.

"Well, Ryou-chan can imitate any move that he sees. The others have abilities as well. You'll see when you meet them."

Taiga grinned at that. "Special abilities, huh? That gets me fired up. I'm going to beat them no matter what their abilities are!"

"Your determination really is something else…" Tetsuna muttered.

"So," Kagami continued, already on his sixth burger. "You and Kise. The two of seemed really close."

Tetsuna shrugged. "We were friends in middle school. That's all. It's not like we were extremely close or anything."

"What about the other Miracles? Is the 'Sei-chan' you mentioned earlier one of them?"

"Sei-chan is—was our captain. Akashi Seijuro. I'm sure you've heard of him."

Taiga nodded. _The captain must be strong. I can't wait to beat him!_

"As for the others…" Tetsuna trailed off and looked out the window, an indiscernible look crossing her face. After a while, she shrugged. "We were all friends, at first. But as time went on and they changed, they grew more distant and I was left behind. They stopped playing for the team and started playing for themselves. They no longer enjoyed the sport and just played for victory's sake. I couldn't stand the way that things had become, so I left."

They sat in silence while Taiga considered her words. It was the most he'd ever hear the young girl say at once.

"And you want to defeat them to prove your way of basketball? The one they wouldn't accept?"

She nodded.

"Alright, then, Kuroko," Taiga declared. "Let's defeat the Generation of Miracles!"

The tiniest slip of a smile appeared on Tetsuna's face then.

"Yes. Let's do it."

* * *

 **Next chapter will be Seirin vs. Kaijou**

 **Thanks for reading!**


	3. Better If I Can't Win

**Me: Okay, time to work on the fanfic that I decided to write for some reason.**

 **Also me: But shouldn't I be studying for finals? Finals are next week. I should study.**

 **Still me: What about practicing piano? If I want to pass the exam next year, I'd better practice.**

 **Again, me: And that book I started a few weeks ago. When am I going to finish that?**

 **Yet again, me: ...Wow. I have so many important things that I need to be doing. Oh well. Let's write fanfiction.**

 **(As you can see, I am really good at prioritizing)**

* * *

 **Thanks to everyone who has reviewed! The reviews inspire me to continue the story, so thanks!**

 **First part of Kaijou vs. Seirin match. I'm kind of bad at writing extended action sequences, but I tried best at it. Hopefully it's enjoyable.**

* * *

Tetsuna looked at her new partner in amusement. There were dark circles under his eyes and he appeared to be exhausted. Apparently, he hadn't slept at all since he was so excited for today's match against Kaijou.

"You're like a kid getting excited for a field trip," she commented.

"What'd you say?" Kagami demanded, glaring. Before he could follow up on that, Kise's excited voice interrupted them.

"Hey, guys!" he cried out, running towards them with a large smile on his face. He immediately ran over to Tetsuna and enveloped her in a hug, which she allowed for five seconds before shoving him off. "Tetsunacchi's so mean," he whined.

"Kise, what are you doing here?" Kagami asked, already irritated.

"This place is so big, so I thought I'd come get you."

He then turned his attention back to Tetsuna.

"Tetsunacchi, ever since you turned down my invitation to join us, I've been crying into my pillow every night!"

Tetsuna sighed deeply. This part of Kise hadn't changed since they first met. Even in their middle school days, Kise would whine about small things and continuously cling to Tetsuna. She'd tolerated it for the most part, though sometimes the blonde got to be too much for her.

"What's wrong with him?" she heard Hyuuga ask.

"Just show us the way," Kagami snapped.

"Not even a girl has turned me down before," Kise continued, completely ignoring Kagami.

"Ryou-chan," Tetsuna said, exasperated. "Asking me to join your basketball team and a love confession are two completely different things. And honestly, I would say 'no' to both. Would you stop already?"

Kise grinned at her and turned to Kagami. "I'm interested to know more about the guy who's making Tetsunacchi say these things. I don't care much about being called the Generation of Miracles, but I can't ignore such an obvious challenge. I'm not mature enough to let it slide."

"Very true," Tetsuna muttered, though no one heard her.

"Sorry, but I'm going to crush you with everything I have."

Kagami, as expected, grinned. "Sounds interesting."

* * *

"This is it," Kise announced when they arrived in the large gymnasium. It was much larger than the gym they had at Seirin. People were already running around the court, playing a practice game.

There was a large net dividing the court in half, confusing Tetsuna and her teammates.

"We're playing on half a court?" Riko questioned. "The other side's being used for practice?"

They walked further into the gym and were greeted by Kaijou's coach, a heavyset man who appeared to be in his late thirties. "You're here. Welcome. I'm Coach Takeuchi. Which one of you is the coach?"

"That's me," Riko informed him.

Takeuchi was shocked by that declaration. "You?" he asked, pointing at her. "You're not the manager?"

Riko looked slightly annoyed by that question. Tetsuna completely understood how she felt. After all, she had been mistaken for Teiko's manager multiple times. It wasn't until after her teammates were dubbed the Generation of Miracles did everyone else finally realize that she was actually a player.

Riko stepped forward and introduced herself. "We look forward to playing with you today!" she concluded, bowing.

"Uh, yeah," Takeuchi replied hesitantly.

"So, um, this is…?"

"Exactly what it looks like," Takeuchi informed them. "We've only made simple arrangements for today's game."

"Arrangements?"

"There won't be enough to learn from this game to make it worth watching for the guys sitting out."

Riko was now obviously annoyed. "I see," she said through gritted teeth.

"We're having the other players practice as usual so we don't waste time," Takeuchi continued. He consulted his clipboard. "Despite the arrangements, you'll be playing our regulars. I hope you won't let us triple your score."

He walked away, leaving Tetsuna and her team staring after him with pissed looks. But Tetsuna felt that perhaps it was good that he was underestimating them. It would make beating his team all the more pleasurable.

"They think we suck," Kagami said in a low voice. "They're treating this like a sideshow to their practice."

"Just listen to him speak," Hyuuga said. He was glaring at Takeuchi who was currently telling Kise that he wouldn't be playing since it wouldn't be a game if he did.

"I haven't been this pissed in a while," Izuki added.

Kise ran over to them then, apologizing. Then, he cupped a hand around his mouth and stage-whispered, "If you give his guys a beating, he'll probably put me in. Besides," he said, an arrogant look crossing over his face, "if you can't force him to put me in, you shouldn't go around saying you'll beat the Generation of Miracles."

Tetsuna snuck a glance at Kagami, since the comment was obviously directed at him. He looked outright pissed at Kise's words. She then looked back to Kise, and the arrogant air that hung around him. She couldn't help but think of the old Kise, who could still be arrogant at times but not to the point where his attitude annoyed her.

Tetsuna smiled. She, Kagami, and Seirin were going to beat him. Then, she might be able to see the old Kise again. And if she beat the other Miracles, maybe things could go back to the way they used to be.

"Hey," Takeuchi called out. "Show the Seirin guys to the locker room."

"It's fine," Tetsuna said as her team began to file out. "Please warm up. We don't have time to wait."

* * *

"Let the practice game between Seirin High and Kaijou High begin."

Five members from each team lined up and faced each other. The referee looked over both teams, looking confused when he saw Seirin's line-up. "Um, we're about to get started, so Seirin hurry up and have your five line up."

"Um," Tetsuna said, getting the referee's attention. "There are five of us."

"Huh?!" the referee and Kaijou's team exclaimed.

Tetsuna sighed at their reaction. Even though she had gotten used to people not noticing her due to her lack of presence, it was still irritating to see them react like that. Especially since she was standing right next to the referee. And of course there was the matter of people being even further surprised since she was a girl.

"A _girl_? A girl is one of their starters? Is Seirin serious?"

"She was right in front of me and I didn't even notice," Kaijou's number 8, Kobori said. "What about you, Kasamatsu?"

"Me neither," Kaijou's captain replied, glancing at Tetsuna.

Finally, the whistle was blown and the match began.

The referee threw the ball in the air, and Kobori and Kagami jumped up to fight for it. Kobori got to it first, and quickly passed it towards Kasamatsu.

"All right," he said whilst dribbling. "One. Let's keep it up."

Since he was speaking, he wasn't paying attention to the ball. Tetsuna took advantage of this and snuck up behind him, stealing the ball away from him.

"What?" Kasamatsu exclaimed in shock.

Tetsuna grinned a little as she ran away from him, dribbling the ball. But Kasamatsu caught up to her quickly, smirking as he moved to block her. Tetsuna however, brushed her hand back, passing the ball off to Kagami who had suddenly appeared behind her. He ran forward with the ball and jumped, ripping the hoop off of the backboard as he dunked the ball.

Kagami turned towards her and grinned. Tetsuna kept her expression blank, though she really felt surprised. She and Kagami had been training together for a while now, so she supposed that they should have some coordination worked out. But Kagami had gotten to that pass so smoothly, had received and made use of it with such ease. She also thought back on how quickly Kagami got used to her passes during their weeks of training. Even when she was playing back on the team at Teiko, it had taken longer for her teammates to learn to catch and make use of her passes. The only one who had been able to catch her passes immediately had been…

Daiki.

He, like Kagami, seemed to have a knack for being able to get to her passes, for knowing how her mind worked and anticipating her next move. The coordination between the two of them had been near perfect, her passing and him receiving, the two of them scoring more goals together than the rest of the team. But after their partnership ended, Tetsuna didn't think that she'd ever be able to work with someone else like that again.

But then there was Kagami, who seemed to just as good as Daiki when it came to receiving her passes.

At the moment, she honestly didn't know how she felt that.

"What's up with that face, Kuroko?" Kagami said, still grinning like an idiot.

Tetsuna sighed. For now, she would focus on this match. There would come a time later where she could think on her new partnership.

"Idiot," she muttered. "Just what are you doing?" She looked over towards the benches and saw Riko apologizing to Coach Takeuchi.

Kagami turned to Coach Takeuchi. "Sorry about that," he said cheekily. "But since the hoop is broken, can we play on a full court?"

Takeuchi looked furious. He glared up at the redhead ad clenched his hands into fists. Yet, he had no choice but to open up the game to a full court.

"Now that's what you call a beating," Kise chuckled the court was being prepared. I've never seen the coach like that before."

That seemed to piss Kagami off. "You should tell him that's what he gets for underestimating us!"

Tetsuna blinked at him. "And just how much do you think a replacement hoop is going to cost?"

"Huh?" Kagami said. "We have to pay for that?"

"You really are an idiot, Kagami-kun," Tetsuna deadpanned. "It makes perfect sense that the person who broke the hoop should have to pay for it."

Kagami gaped at her as if the thought of having to compensate for the broken hoop had never occurred to him. Tetsuna nodded over to where Takeuchi stood, still glaring at them.

"You should go discuss payment methods now," she told him and turned away.

"Hey! Kuroko!"

 _He really is an idiot,_ Tetsuna thought, amused.

* * *

"Now," the referee said once the gym was fully prepared, "let's resume the match."

The players all stepped onto the court, and this time Kise was playing.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," he said seriously.

Kagami looked pleased at the turn of events. "You're finally in," he said, placing his hands on his hips.

"You're way too intense for a model when you're on," Hyuuga commented, looking over his opponent.

"He's not just putting on a show," Tetsuna told her teammates.

"Tetsunacchi! Let's have a good game!" Kise said to her, grinning.

Tetsuna only nodded in response. She then turned to Riko and watched as her coach evaluated Kise. She couldn't even begin to imagine what Riko saw while looking at Kise's stats. It was going to be an interesting game.

The sound of cheering caught Tetsuna's attention, and she looked towards the entrance of the gym where a large crowd of girls had gathered, just like they had on that day when Kise had come to Seirin.

"Kise-kun!" they called out, waving.

Kise waved back to them with a silly smile. Before Tetsuna could make a comment on his behavior, Kasamatsu ran up and kicked Kise in the back, send the blonde sprawling forward.

"Quit waving to them!" the captain ordered. "I'll hit you!"

This sent a now crying Kise over to Tetsuna. "Tetsunacchi!" he exclaimed clinging onto her arm. "Kasamatsu-senpai hit me!"

"What do you want me to do about it?" she asked, bewildered.

"Hey!" Kagami said, looking royally pissed at Kise's immaturity. "What do you think you're doing?"

Kasamatsu was also less than pleased with him. He stormed over and hauled Kise away.

It was going to be a _very_ interesting game.

* * *

Sometime into the match, Seirin called a time out.

They discussed plans and when Tetsuna told her team about the time limit on her misdirection, she found that Riko was staring at her as if she'd grown a second head. Tetsuna looked back at her coach confused.

"Coach," she started. "What's—"

"Why didn't you tell us something so important sooner?" Riko suddenly exclaimed. She took Tetsuna by the shoulders and shook her.

"Sorry," Tetsuna replied awkwardly. "You didn't ask, so—"

"Do you not say anything unless you're asked?" Riko seemed even more annoyed now.

"Sorry," Tetsuna said again when Riko released her.

Before anything else could be said, a whistle was blown signaling the end of the time out.

"Anyways," Riko started as the players headed back on court. "Switch from man-to-man to zone defense. Keep it tight inside and move in to help stop Kise quickly. Stopping Kise is your first priority. Also, slow down your pace, Tetsuna-chan. Just don't let the gap get too big. Can you do that?"

"I'll try," Tetsuna said. _Though it's going to be hard with Kise on the other team. And I don't know how much longer my misdirection will hold up. If we want to win, then we need to start getting points fast._

* * *

Despite switching to zone defense, Kaijou continued to score, widening the gap. However, Kagami soon got possession of the ball and prepared to dunk it. He was stopped by Kise, who jumped up and knocked the ball away.

"Out of bounds!" the referee called out. "White ball."

 _So close,_ Tetsuna thought. She looked over to Kagami. Kise had walked over to him and said something that Tetsuna couldn't hear. Whatever it was, Kagami looked extremely annoyed. Tetsuna watched as Kise continued to speak. Then, surprisingly, Kagami began to laugh. Tetsuna moved closer to them so that she could hear their conversation.

"It's been a long time since anyone's said that to me," Kagami was saying. "I heard it all the time over there."

"Over there?" Kise questioned, confused.

"In America."

Kise was very amazed by that one fact. "You lived in America? That's amazing!"

"I thought I jumped the gun coming back here to play. Hearing you say that is encouraging, really. Life really is all about challenges. There's no point in living if there's no one strong to play. It's better if I can't win."

Tetsuna gasped in shock at those words.

'Better if I can't win.'

Hadn't Daiki felt something similar to that? Hadn't he grown so tired of victories that he started to dread them more and more? It was bothering her a little now, how much Kagami reminded her of Daiki. She clenched her fists, thoughts whirling around her mind crazily. She was brought out of her thinking when suddenly a hand was planted on her head.

"What?" she exclaimed in shock. She looked up to see Kagami grinning, hand on her head and facing Kise.

"This girl is your weakness," he declared. He began chuckling, much to Tetsuna's irritation.

"What are you doing?"

Kagami only grinned.

* * *

Tetsuna stole the ball from Kise and passed it to Hyuuga, who immediately shot a three-pointer. They were over two minutes into the second quarter and they'd closed the gap down to five points. Kaijou had 39, and Seirin had 34.

"Tetsunacchi," Kise said. He looked annoyed now that the gap had been reduced.

"Ryou-chan, you're strong," she told him honestly. "I'm powerless and Kagami can't stand against you. But when we work together, we have a fighting chance."

And that was what she really had to show him. The power that came from working not as an individual, but as a team who could rely on one another.

Kise was displeased with her words though. "You really have changed, Tetsunacchi. We never played basketball like this at Teiko. But, you still can't stop me. The won who wins will be me. It's true that I can't copy your coordination, but since your misdirection will wear off after 40 minutes, you'll lose this game in the second half!"

Kise started to move, determined. Tetsuna stepped out in front of him and watched as the shock registered on his face. "I never dreamed we'd play together like this, Tetsunachhi," he said once the shock had faded.

"Neither did I," Tetsuna said, staring Kise down.

"I don't know what you're up to, but it's impossible for you to stop me!" Kise declared. He ran around Tetsuna only to be stopped again by Kagami.

"Wrong," Kagami told him. "We're not stopping you. We're taking the ball!"

Tetsuna grinned, and taking advantage of Kise's surprise, she moved quickly and shoved the ball out of Kise's hands.

"It doesn't matter how amazingly you play against us," Kagami said, catching the ball with ease. "Our goal is to let you through!"

They all watched as Seirin another basket.

The ball returned to Kise, who dribbled it while facing Tetsuna. "I just won't run by you then," he decided. "No one said I couldn't shoot a three pointer!"

Tetsuna's eyes widened as Kise jumped up, preparing to shoot. Her eyes widened even more as Kagami once more planted his hand on her head. She felt his weight bear down on her as he propelled himself up and knocked the ball out of Kise's hands.

 _Success!_ Tetsuna thought as Kise looked at her and Kagami in shock. As Kise turned to chase after the ball, Tetsuna felt something hard hit her in the forehead (Kise's hand, she realized) and crumpled to the floor.

Her head spun and she was vaguely aware of her name being called and a whistle being blown. Something wet slipped down her face. Was it blood?

"Tetsunacchi!"

Kise's voice, she thought. He was the only one to call her by that nickname. She moved her head and saw his panicked face staring down at her. She stood up unsteadily.

"I'm fine," she mumbled, swaying a bit. "The match is just getting start—"

Everything went black.

* * *

 **This was originally going to be longer, but then I decided to split it into two chapters.**


	4. They Could Not Understand

**Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke**

* * *

As Tetsuna fell to the ground, Ryouta moved immediately to catch her.

"Tetsunacchi!" he exclaimed, looking at the wound on his friend's head.

He felt horrible. He hadn't meant to hit her, yet here she was unconscious and bleeding.

"Bring her over here!" he heard Seirin's coach, Aida Riko say. She gestured at the bench on Seirin's side. Ryouta complied and gently set Tetsuna down, staring at her worriedly. He moved aside as her teammates got a first aid kit and tended to her injury. Seeing that he could do nothing for his friend, he backed away to let Seirin take care of her.

 _Tetsunacchi…_ The injury looked really bad to him. If word got out about this…

 _I'm going to get killed!_ Ryouta realized. Aomine and Akashi would have his head for this. Even Midorima and Murasakibara would be furious with him for what he'd done. They'd all been very protective of Tetsuna, treating her like a younger sister. They were supposed to make sure she didn't get hurt, not hurt her themselves!

He looked over to Seirin's side and saw that Kagami was glaring at him.

Great. Now there were five people who wanted to murder him.

 _Who exactly is this Kagami?_ Ryouta wondered. He hadn't missed the way that Kagami had Tetsuna's passes. There was only one other person that Ryouta knew who could catch the phantom player's passes that easily, and that person and Tetsuna were no longer on speaking terms. Seeing Tetsuna and Kagami work together so easily was both sad and exciting at the same time.

 _I wonder if Aominecchi knows about Kagami_.

Ryouta gulped as he thought about what the ace's reaction would be. It was true that Aomine and Tetsuna were no longer speaking to each other, but that didn't mean that they no longer cared. Ryouta knew for a fact that Aomine still cared very much for Tetsuna, and would be less than pleased to know that she found a new 'light'.

He would also not hesitate to kill Ryouta for hurting Tetsuna, accident or not. Ryouta was once more engulfed by his guilt as he watched Tetsuna's team talk amongst themselves.

"They're finished," Kasamatsu said. "It's not what should've happened though."

Ryouta nodded slowly, not really thinking.

"Hey, Kise!" He was brought out of his guilt by his captain, who'd hit him on the head. Again. "It was an accident. Stop beating yourself up over it. If you really feel that bad, then apologize later once the game is over. Now get your head back into the game!"

Ryouta sighed. "Understood, Kasamatsu-senpai…"

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Tetsuna awoke to the sound of shoes on a gymnasium floor and the voices of her teammates.

Their words were blurry at first as she tried to reorient herself. What had happened?

A sharp but brief burst of pain reminded her that Kise had accidentally hit her earlier. Her friend's worried and guilt-filled face flashed before her eyes for a moment as the pain faded.

 _I have to talk to Ryou-chan later,_ she decided.

The voices around her became clearer and she realized that the match was still going on. Her teammates were discussing the match, and by the sounds of it, things weren't looking good for Seirin.

"If only we had Tetsuna-chan…" Riko was saying.

"I understand," Tetsuna said, sitting up slowly. She tried opening her eyes but realized she could only open her right one. "Good morning."

Her teammates stared at her in shock.

"I'll be going then," she said and walked towards the court.

Riko stopped her immediately. "Hey, wait. What are you talking about?"

"But you just told me to go," Tetsuna told her, confused.

"I didn't tell you to go," Riko protested. "It just slipped out."

"Then, I'm going," Tetsuna said, opening her left eye. "If I can change anything by going out there, please. Besides, I promised Kagami I would be his shadow."

"I get it," Riko said at last, sighing in resignation. "But if I think you're in trouble, I'm switching you out immediately."

Tetsuna nodded in agreement. It was the best she could ask for at this point.

* * *

With only six minutes left in the final quarter, Tetsuna switched places with Koganei. They were ten points behind Kaijou.

"You alright?" Kagami asked her as she stepped onto the court. "Are you sure you're okay to play? Are you dizzy at all?"

"Kagami-kun, you worry too much. I'm fine."

The redhead looked at her dubiously, but relented. "Fine. Let's go."

"Yes."

The match progressed quickly. Tetsuna snuck around the court, stealing the ball and passing to her teammates, who would then score. Kaijou would score as well, maintaining the point gap. But since Tetsuna had been out of the game for a while, her misdirection was renewed, making it hard for Kaijou's players to keep track of her. She took advantage of this and moved as fast as possible, passing the ball from person to person.

At the five-minute mark, they were only two points behind Kaijou. One minute later, they were tied.

 _We can do this,_ Tetsuna thought with a smile. But just as her hopes got high, she felt the atmosphere of the court change. She looked over at her friend and saw that Kise's aura had strengthened immensely. A defiant look had entered his golden eyes.

Kasamatsu passed the ball to Kise, and he took off with it immediately, bypassing everyone with incredible speed and scoring a basket.

"I won't lose," Kise said. "Not to anyone. Not even Tetsunacchi."

"This isn't good," Hyuuga said. "Give it your all everyone. From here on out, the match will be like the first quarter. A back and forth run-and-gun game!"

The game continued, both teams scoring, making it so that the gap remained unchanged. When there was only one minute left in the match, there was still a two-point difference between the teams, Seirin at 91 and Kaijou and 93. Then, at twenty seconds, they were tied once more at 98 points.

 _So close,_ Tetsuna thought, eyeing the score board. Her hands were planted on her knees and she was breathing hard. She was getting a little lightheaded, most likely a result of her head wound from earlier. _Just twenty more seconds_ , she told herself.

"There's no time left!" Hyuuga yelled. "If we don't take the ball now, it's over!"

"Kagami-kun," Tetsuna said, walking over to the redhead. "If we can get the ball, there's one more thing we can do that Kise can't copy. It's a simple strategy that will only work once, though."

"Let's do it!" Kagami declared once she had explained her plan.

When Kasamatsu jumped up to shoot, Kagami jumped as well, pushing the ball from Kaijou's captain and towards Seirin's. Hyuuga passed the ball back towards Seirin's end of the court and Kagami and Tetsuna took off after it.

"Kuroko!" When Kise appeared in front of them, Kagami passed the ball to Tetsuna. She knew that Kise would expect her to pass it back to Kagami since she can't shoot. So he looked shocked when she threw the ball towards the basket.

If she was on her own, the ball would never have gone in. The trajectory was all wrong and it would've fallen terribly short of the basket.

But she wasn't on her own.

Kagami was there, right where she needed him to be. He jumped high, ready to take hold of the ball. Kise jumped as well, but Kagami jump got him further. When Kise had started to fall to the laws of gravity, Kagami was still climbing up.

"I don't need you to return the favor! Because, this ends now!" Kagami declared as he took the ball and slammed it into the basket, raising Seirin's score to 100.

It was Seirin's victory!

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Midorima Shintaro watched as his former teammate stepped out of the gym and walked towards the sinks to wash his face. Shintaro had seen the whole match and was very surprised by the outcome.

"The horoscope for your sign, Gemini, was the worst for today," he said while he approached, immediately catching Kise's attention, "but I didn't think you'd actually lose."

"You came to watch, Midorimacchi?" Kise asked.

Shintaro felt a slight pulse of annoyance at the ridiculous nickname. "Well, no matter who won, it was an unfortunate game. Even a monkey could've managed those dunks. It's no wonder that fate didn't choose your side." He adjusted his glasses with as bandaged fingers as he spoke.

Kise pouted at him. "I haven't seen you since middle school. It's good to see you again." He rested an arm on the sink and looked straight at Shintaro. "I see you're taping your fingers, as usual. Anyways, does it matter if I dunk as long as it goes in?"

"That's why you're no good," Shintaro said, irritated by Kise's way of thinking. "Getting the ball in from up close is easy. Getting it in from a distance has true value. Didn't anyone teach you the saying: 'Do everything you can and God will do the rest'? Optimal effort makes you worthy of fate's grace." He tossed a towel at Kise and continued, "I always do everything I can, and I always keep the Oha-Asa horoscope's lucky item on me. By the way, today's item is a toy frog. That's why my shots never miss."

He held up the frog that he had gotten first thing in the morning.

Kise looked at the frog skeptically.

"Shouldn't you be talking to Tetsunacchi instead of me?" Kise asked.

"There's no need," Shintaro replied. "I respect her as both a person and a basketball player, but I will not accept her decision to go to a weak school such as Seirin. Her talent is wasted on such a school."

He'd asked her about her choice when he'd texted her to inform her of Kise going to see her at Seirin, but she'd never gotten back to him on that.

 _I know what happened in third year was bad, but was it so horrible to her that she would choose to go to a weak school?_

"I simply came because we'll play them in the division preliminaries. But honestly, none of them are good enough besides Tsuna-chan."

"Not necessarily," Kise said, much to Shintaro's surprise. "I mean, Tetsunacchi is really amazing, but that Kagami Taiga guy has a lot of potential. He caught all of Tetsunacchi's passes without any trouble! He's really interesting."

Shintaro sighed. He didn't know about strength or potential, but Kagami was interesting. Watching Tetsuna play with him had reminded Shintaro of Tetsuna playing with Aomine. Not to mention that the redhead was just as loud and idiotic as Teiko's former ace.

A bicycle bell rang from behind them, and Shintaro turned to see his new teammate approaching him, glaring as he pulled the box-car along on a bike.

"Midorima, you bastard!" Takao Kazunari cried out. "You left me alone in the middle of traffic! Do you know how embarrassing that is?"

"Well, I just came to watch the game today," Shintaro said to Kise. "But allow me to apologize. There is no way we'll lose to Seirin, even if they do have Tsuna-chan on their team. It's unfortunate, but it's better if you just give up on your revenge."

"And Kise, one last thing." Shintaro adjusted his glasses again and glared at Kise, who gulped in fear. "Akashi has been informed of what happened in today's match."

"Midorimacchi!" Kise exclaimed, eyes growing wide in terror.

"I'll let Akashi decide what to do with you this time. But if this happens again, not only will I tell Akashi, but I'll tell Aomine as well."

Because Shintaro knew that Aomine would do anything for Tetsuna, no matter the circumstances between them. Kise knew this as well, and hung his head in resignation.

"I know I messed up. I'm really sorry."

"I'm not the one you should be telling that to," Shintaro said briskly. "How is she, by the way?"

"Her team's taking caring of her. Her coach is going to take her to a hospital to get the wound checked. She should be okay, though."

"She'd better be."

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Despite her protests that she was fine, Riko still dragged Tetsuna to a hospital to get checked up. After the doctor reassured Riko that Tetsuna would be fine, and all she needed was to take it easy for a few days, they went to meet up with the rest of their team. They were all relieved that she wasn't seriously injured and decided to go out to eat to celebrate their victory.

"What should we eat?" Hyuuga asked.

"Something cheap," Koganei answered. "I'm broke."

"So am I," Kagami replied.

"I have money," Tetsuna interjected.

"Really?" all the boys exclaimed, grinning as they turned to her. "How much."

"Hold on," Riko said, sending them all glares. "You're not seriously going to make Tetsuna-chan pay for dinner, are you?"

The boys' elation wore off immediately and they all hung their heads, murmuring apologies.

"I don't really mind," Tetsuna said.

Riko looked at her worriedly. "Are you sure? I mean, there's a lot of us. Are you sure you have enough?"

"I'm sure."

In fact, she had more than enough. Her parents co-owned one of Japan's largest businesses with Akashi's parents. Their parents had been friends since their school days and had later started the business together right when they got out of college. The business was immensely successful, so Tetsuna got a hefty allowance from them each month.

"Come on, coach," Koganei said. "Kuroko said it's okay, so let's go somewhere to eat!"

Riko sighed. "Fine."

* * *

In the end, they ended eating ramen, even though they could've chosen something far more expensive. But if Tetsuna had learned one thing about boys during her three years at Teiko, it was that they would eat any food they could get their hands on, no matter the quality.

She finished eating before the others so she stepped outside for some fresh air.

"We won," she murmured, looking up at the sky. It was a hard match, but they had done it. They'd beaten one of the Generation of Miracles.

 _But_ , Tetsuna began to wonder, _was I thinking to rashly when I thought that defeating them would change things? Has defeating Ryou-chan done anything to change his way of thinking about basketball?_

As if her thoughts had summoned him, Kise suddenly appeared before Tetsuna.

"Ryou-chan?" Tetsuna said in surprise.

He smiled at her. "Do you have a minute to talk?"

* * *

They ended up at a nearby park with a caged basketball court next to it. Kise jumped onto a park bench while holding a basketball in one hand and sat on top of the bench, still smiling. However, his smile fell a little when he saw the bandage on Tetsuna's forehead.

"Your injury…" he started hesitantly.

Tetsuna gave him a reassuring smile. "It's fine," she told him. "The doctor just said that I would have to take it easy for a while. Other than that, it's really nothing serious."

"I see," Kise said, nodding. "Even so, I never meant to hurt you, Tetsunacchi. I'm really sorry."

"It's alright," she said. "You shouldn't blame yourself, Ryou-chan. After all, things like this happen all the time in sports."

Kise sighed deeply, spinning the basketball in his hands. "By the way, I saw Midorimacchi."

"Shin-chan? At Kaijou?"

Kise nodded.

"Why was he there?"

"Seems like he just came to watch today's game," Kise said. He tilted his head back and looked up at the evening sky, a note of melancholy entering his voice. "He's also upset that you chose to go to Seirin instead of a school with a strong basketball team."

"I know," Tetsuna murmured, thinking of the message that he had sent her. "But I don't plan on going to any other school than Seirin. I've made up my mind already."

Kise dropped his gaze back to her and sighed. "First you turned me down, and then I lost today's game. My high school life is going completely wrong."

He leaned further back and lifted his legs up, gripping the bench with his hands to keep himself stabilized. He then balanced his basketball on his forehead. "I didn't expect you to say yes, but I was serious."

"You'll fall over," Tetsuna chided him while smiling softly. Then, she added, "I'm sorry."

Kise leapt off of the bench and faced her, smiling like he always did. "I'm kidding," he told her. He tossed the basketball a few times before saying, "That aside, what I wanted to talk to you about was about your reason. Why, right after the middle school championship game, did you suddenly disappear?"

He tossed the basketball to Tetsuna, who caught it with ease.

His question, however, would not be as easy to answer. She considered how to answer for a while.

Several memories flashed into her mind at that moment.

Crying in the rain as Daiki walked away from her. Calling out his name even though he could no longer hear her.

A sudden change in her oldest friend. Mismatched eyes, one gold one red.

A scoreboard reading 111-11. The heartbroken look on her childhood friend's face as he looked at her as if he no longer knew her.

Tetsuna's heart ached at the memories.

Could she just lay out all of her reasons right here and now for Kise to hear? Would he even understand if she told him? The lack of understanding had been the root of the problems that had developed between her and her former teammates.

She could not understand how they could abandon teamwork and focus solely on victory, not even caring how that victory was obtained.

They could not understand why she wanted them to rely on each other and play honestly, not caring if they won as long as they had played their best _together_.

She couldn't voice these thoughts out loud. At least not yet, not with things being the way they were.

"I'm not sure," she said instead. It wasn't a full-on lie as she wasn't sure how to voice her reasons. "It's true I began to question Teiko's policies because of the championship game. I felt we lacked something."

"Sports are all about winning. What could be more important?"

All the hopes that Tetsuna had been building up since the victory earlier all came crashing down.

Nothing had changed. Not a thing. In the end, it _had_ been unreasonable of her to believe that change would come so easily, that her friends would go back to the way they used to be if she beat them with her basketball. In the end, nothing was that easy.

"I thought the same thing, once," she said. "But at that time, I truly hated basketball. The feel of the ball. The squeak of basketball shoes. The swish of the net. I started playing because I loved the game. That's why I was so impressed when I met Kagami. He loves basketball from the bottom of his heart. He seems to have gone through scary and rough times, but he takes basketball more seriously than anyone else."

"I don't get it," Kise said in a low voice. "But I can say one thing. If you think so highly of Kagami because of his attitude towards basketball, some day you and Kagami will part ways. The biggest difference between me and the other four isn't our physical abilities. They all have a special ability not even I can imitate. I realized during today's game that he's still learning. And just like the Generation of Miracles, he has a special ability. Right now, he's still and immature challenger. He's enjoying the thrill of recklessly playing stronger opponents. However, someday he'll achieve the level of the Generation of Miracles and grow apart from his team for sure. Won't he be a different person then?"

The words hit her hard. Kise was talking about Kagami, but as he spoke, Tetsuna kept thinking about Daiki.

He had loved the game once, but as he grew stronger, he had grown apart from his team.

He had grown apart from _her_.

Without realizing it, Tetsuna's hands began to shake. She was still clutching the basketball, so it trembled uncontrollably in her hands.

 _No,_ she thought adamantly. _I won't let it happen again. Never again._

Her thoughts whirled around and she found herself reminiscing on their final year at Teiko.

 _Third year, when everything went wrong…_

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **The next chapter will take place in third year of Teiko.**


	5. So Very, Very Cold

**This chapter is set during their third year at Teiko.**

* * *

At first, the changes had been subtle.

His smiles were a little less bright; his laughs lasted a little shorter.

He seemed to get distracted much easier, and was less willing to talk to his friends. At practice, he played half-heartedly, though it still seemed to everyone that he was playing hard since he was just that strong.

And there was always a sad look in his eyes when he thought that no one was looking.

They were all small details that no one except for Tetsuna noticed. She had known him for over two years, and had come to understand him very well. With each day that passed, her concern for her friend grew. She went to Akashi with her worries first, not hesitating to confide in her childhood friend.

A pair of concerned eyes—both still red at the time—studied her. "Are you sure you're not reading into the situation too much? He seems fine to me."

And it was strange, so strange, that Akashi, who could see everything, hadn't realized but Tetsuna did. She herself was good at evaluating people, but Akashi was better.

So why hadn't he realized anything at the time?

Tetsuna talked to Satsuki next, who was also very perceptive.

"Do you think Daiki has been behaving weird recently?" Tetsuna asked one day as they walked home together.

Her pink-haired friend blinked owlishly at her. "Really? I haven't noticed anything different, though…Did something happen?"

"That's what I'm trying to find out," Tetsuna replied. "It's just these days he seems…less happy, somehow. It's kind of worrying me. You really don't know anything, Tsuki-chan?"

 _Even though, like Sei-chan,_ _you notice everything?_ Tetsuna added mentally.

"No. And I doubt he'd tell me if I asked," Satsuki said ruefully, shaking her head. But then she grinned. "But if anyone can get him to talk, it would be you Tetsu-chan!"

* * *

He began to occasionally skip practice sometime after.

Some weeks he'd show up every single day, while others he'd only come two or three times. When their coach politely asked him to not skip practices, Daiki had just nodded, saying "yes, yes" in a totally unconvincing tone.

Tetsuna had tried to talk to him about it, only for him to immediately change the subject on her, talking about anything but basketball. She was not the only one to approach him with questions about his behavior, especially as his absences from practices increased steadily. Satsuki came running to her one day with tears in her eyes.

"I don't know what to do about him, Tetsu-chan!" the pinkette exclaimed, throwing herself at Tetsuna. "He got really mad when I tried to talk to him about practice. He yelled and told me to go away!"

"Don't worry, Tsuki-chan," Tetsuna reassured, gently patting her friend on the head. "I'll go talk to that idiot and figure out what's wrong."

But Satsuki did not look comforted.

"What's wrong?" Tetsuna asked.

Her friend sighed deeply. "You were right, Tetsu-chan. About Dai-chan behaving weirdly. I can't believe I didn't realize then like you did. I'm his childhood friend and yet I didn't even see that something was wrong until now! To think that you'd know him better than I do…" She paused, took deep breath, and smiled. "You really are amazing, Tetsu-chan!"

She realized, then, why she'd seen the first signs of change in Daiki but her and his super-observant childhood friends hadn't. Why, when it came to Daiki, she was able to see and realize things that others weren't.

It was something that had been nagging her for a while, though she'd been denying it for a while. Perhaps she had always known subconsciously, but it wasn't until that moment that it became stunningly clear to her.

It was simple, but complex at the same time, just as matters of the heart tended to be.

Kuroko Tetsuna had fallen in love with Aomine Daiki.

* * *

"Daiki, you've been skipping practice more frequently, recently," she said to him as he handed her a peach-flavored popsicle. She'd finally cajoled him into walking home with her, something they used to do often but hadn't in a while.

He took a bite out of his own popsicle. "It's fine. If I practice, I'll get even better. The harder I try the more boring basketball becomes. Surely, the thing I want is already…"

He trailed off, a distant look in his eyes.

"The thing you want?" Tetsuna questioned.

"A rival who can actually stand against me," he told her. "But someone like that will never appear. In the end, basketball is just a game. From now on, I'm going to start skipping games—"

"You can't do that," Tetsuna interrupted and dropped her popsicle into the space between Daiki's back and his uniform. He tensed up immediately at the cold popsicle as it slid down his back. He glared at her, though he didn't look mad. Tetsuna returned his look levelly. They had stopped walking and were standing on the staircase of the bridge that stretched over the road. "It takes everything I have to keep up with everyone else, so I don't know how you feel. However, if I were your opponent, no matter how large the difference in our skill, I wouldn't want you to play half-heartedly."

She smiled as he blinked at her, clearly surprised by her words. "Besides," she continued, walking down the remaining steps, "I'm sure you'll meet someone stronger than yourself soon."

"You…" Daiki said, following after her. She looked back at him and grinned. After a few moments, he returned her smile with one of her own. "You're right." The two friends bumped fists and continued down the sidewalk. After a while, Daiki wrapped his hand around hers and Tetsuna flushed instantly.

It wasn't the first time they had held hands. In fact, they held hands quite often whenever they walked home together without the rest of their team following. But because of the distance that Daiki had been keeping between them until now, it had been a while since they last walked home together. It was also the first time they held hands since Tetsuna had come to terms with her feelings for her blue-haired friend. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, studying his expression. He looked happier than he had been in months. His jubilant expression sent her thoughts and emotions whirring as she thought about their current relationship.

She had yet to tell him how she felt.

She had yet to find out how he felt about her.

There would be time for that in the future, when the shock of realizing her love for Daiki had worn off. She wanted to be calm when she confessed. She wanted to have all her thoughts in order and tell him exactly how much she loves him. And she wanted to be mentally and emotionally prepared for whatever Daiki's response would be.

Tetsuna exhaled, and let her hand relax in Daiki's.

His hand was strong, yet his grip on her was gentle. His hand was calloused from playing basketball, but she felt perfectly comfortable holding his hand.

And warm.

So very, very warm.

* * *

For a while, she thought that everything was going to turn out okay.

She had come no closer to confessing her feelings, but that was trivial compared to the fact that Daiki was back to being his old self again.

He was laughing cheerfully at jokes and making jabs at Kise and Midorima.

He started showing up at practice more often, much to Tetsuna and Satsuki's delight.

He was still as lazy as ever when it came to everything aside from basketball—his studies, for instance—but that was just who Daiki was.

Things progressed smoothly, slowly getting better. Daiki began to smile again while playing matches. She shared a fist-bump with him every time they scored a goal together.

And after some time, she felt that she was finally ready to tell him her feelings.

They had a game against Kamizaki Middle School coming up, and Tetsuna resolved to confess after the match, no matter the result.

But that was when things started getting out of hand.

Teiko had won the match, but halfway through the game, their opponents had all but given up, playing halfheartedly for what remained of the match.

Tetsuna approached Daiki after the buzzer sounded, indicating the end of the match. She smiled and held up her fist, waiting for Daiki to do the same.

But there was a look on his face that not even Tetsuna could discern.

"Tetsu," he said slowly, as if just coming out of his thoughts. "I don't think that what you said was wrong. But in the end, it's no good. Somehow I realized, I'll never find what I'm searching for."

He then walked away from Tetsuna, not bothering to return the fist-bump.

"The only one who can win against me is me."

* * *

He stopped coming to practice after that.

* * *

"Tsuna-chan."

Tetsuna looked up and saw Midorima looking down at her, a furrow between his brows.

"Yes, Shin-chan?" she replied. "Is something wrong?"

"Class ended five minutes ago. And I've been trying to get your attention since."

She looked around the classroom and saw that it was empty save for her and Midorima. How had that happened without her noticing?

"Oh," she said, a little embarrassed. "Sorry. I didn't realize. I was a little distracted so…"

She trailed off, unsure of what else she could say. She'd been in a haze ever since their victory against Kamizaki a month ago. But although they had won in score, Tetsuna didn't really feel as if they were the really victors. They hadn't been playing together at all, each player striving to make himself stand out more than the others. Tetsuna had been the only one who had tried to make them work as a team.

And then there had been the fact that Daiki hadn't returned her fist-bump and had walked away from her. She hadn't even spoken to him since that match since he no longer came to practice, and thus had yet to tell him how she felt about him.

Midorima sighed, once more bringing her out of her thoughts. He pulled out the chair at the desk in front of her and sat down.

"Tsuna-chan, you've been distracted for a while now," he said smoothly. "I'm starting to get worried. Everyone is. And you know what Akashi is like when it comes to you."

"I know," Tetsuna said tiredly. "Sorry."

Midorima adjusted his glasses. "It's nothing you need to apologize for. But if something is bothering you, it's okay to talk to the rest of us about it."

"Thanks, Shin-chan," she said with a weak smile. She didn't know if she could ever tell her team that they were the ones troubling her with their lack of team play, but the fact that Midorima had offered to listen made her happy.

It showed that even though they hated to work together on a court, they were still willing to keep up their friendships off the court. It gave her hope that there could be a way forward for all of them.

"Now," Midorima said after a while. "I know that you don't think much of Oha-Asa's predictions, but I'll still share with you Aquarius's horoscope for today."

"Okay," Tetsuna replied, smiling wider. Although she, like the rest of her team, didn't believe in the horoscopes, they still sometimes ended up giving out helpful advice.

Midorima cleared his throat as he read the horoscope from his phone. "Aquarius is ranked number six today. Oha-Asa's advice is this: 'If you have something important to tell someone, make sure to do so before it's too late. Otherwise, you'll end up walking down a road of regret.' Your lucky item for today is a music box."

 _A music box?_ Tetsuna thought, a bit amused. But she thought of the advice that Oha-Asa gave.

 _Something important to tell someone…_

She stood abruptly, knocking her chair back.

"Thanks, Shin-chan!" she declared. Midorima looked confused at her sudden change of attitude but she had no time to explain to him. She grabbed her bag and hurried out of the classroom. "That advice helped a lot!" she called back. "I'll see you tomorrow!"

As she ran towards the school gates, she got out her phone and dialed Daiki's number.

"What do you want," he said groggily when he picked up.

"Daiki, are you still at school right now?"

"Yeah. I'm on the roof. Why?"

"Meet me at the school gates in five minutes."

"What?" he exclaimed, the sleepiness now gone from his voice. "Why?"

"Stop asking questions," she said briskly. "Just hurry up and meet me at the gates."

He grumbled something that she couldn't quite make out. "Fine," he said at last. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

* * *

"So what do you want?" he asked when he arrived precisely five minutes later.

His arms were crossed over his chest and he was frowning. He always seemed to be frowning, these days. As far as she knew, he hadn't smiled since they won against Kamizaki.

Tetsuna pinched her lips together. She hadn't spoken to him face-to-face since the match last month, and now that he was standing right in front of her, she didn't quite know what exactly to say that wouldn't upset him further.

Oha-Asa's advice flitted around in her head, as well as the plans she made about her confession.

She had wanted to wait until she was ready to both confess and receive Daiki's response. She had wanted to have all her words ready, and not have to fumble for them. But right now, she could think of nothing except for three simple words, and she was definitely _not_ ready to speak them aloud.

But Oha-Asa had warned her that she would walk down a road of regret if she delayed too much.

Perhaps…Perhaps she could try to smooth things out between them, just a little. Then, once Daiki could at least smile at her again, she would tell him, even if she wasn't fully ready.

"Daiki," she said, planting her hands on her hips. "Let's go shopping!"

* * *

"I can't believe you dragged me along to go _shopping_ of all things," Daiki grumbled as they walked through the shopping district. "Since when did you like shopping, anyways?"

Tetsuna smiled sheepishly.

Since Daiki found took no pleasure in playing basketball anymore, she couldn't exactly challenge him to a match like she used to do in first and second year. Going shopping was simply the first thing that popped into mind.

"You can continue your napping later, Daiki," she told him. "Besides, were you really doing anything else other than sleeping?"

"No," he muttered. He let out a long breath. "Fine, fine. Since I'm already here, I'll accompany you on whatever it is that you're doing here."

Though he looked a bit annoyed, he was still talking to her and had agreed to go shopping with her. It was a huge improvement from the silence that had stretched between them this past month.

They walked until a small store caught Tetsuna's eye. Through the glass window on the storefront, she could see shelves lining the store walls. On the shelves were many small boxes. Several people walked from shelf to shelf, examining the boxes.

Music boxes.

 _Your lucky item for today is a music box._

"Seriously?" she murmured, staring into the store.

"Tetsu? What's wrong?" Daiki asked.

She looked to him, then back to the store.

Today, she decided, was a day for following Oha-Asa's advice.

"Daiki, let's go in there."

He gave her a confused look, and seemed as if he wanted to further question her behavior. But he breathed out a resigned sigh and nodded.

They entered the shop and walked towards a shelf. The music boxes came in all different shapes, sizes, and colors. She picked one up at random and showed it to Daiki, grinning. He merely shrugged at her. She continued to look through the shelf until her gaze stopped on two cube-shaped boxes made out of wood. She tried picking one up, but ended up picking both up as they were connected.

"That's strange," Daiki murmured, looking at the boxes with her. The boxes looked simply like two plain wooden boxes. There was a key stuck to both the boxes, and a keyhole on top of each.

"Those are our newest item," an unfamiliar voice said. Tetsuna looked to the source of the voice and saw a kind-looking man with graying hair walking over to them. "They're rather popular amongst couples."

 _Couples?_ Tetsuna thought, already feeling a blush forming.

She looked around the store and saw that other people were looking at the connected boxes as well, and all those people were couples.

"How do they work?" Daiki asked, pointing at the boxes, unsurprisingly oblivious to the implications of the man's words.

The man who Tetsuna figured was the storeowner took the connected boxes from Tetsuna. In one quick movement, he disconnected the two so that he was holding one box in each hand.

"They come as a pair. Each comes with a key that you use to play the song," he said, removing the key of one and inserting it into the keyhole. A few notes burst out as he turned the key, though they sounded a little strange. "One box plays the harmony of a song, while the other plays the melody. You put them together like this." He held up the two boxes and showed them the clasps on one side of each box. He pressed the boxes together and there was a _click_ when they connected.

"By putting them together, you end up connecting the cylinder(1) in the boxes. So, when you turn the knob, both parts play together at once." He turned the key again, and this time the notes didn't sound strange at all.

The storeowner handed the boxes back, and Tetsuna took them. She looked at the boxes, amazed by the difference between the boxes playing alone and the boxes playing together.

"Let me know if I can help you with anything else," the storeowner said with a smile. He walked away to help the other couples, who were also looking at the strange wooden boxes.

"What do you think?" she asked Daiki, handing him one of the boxes.

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Seriously? You want something like this?"

She shrugged. "It's cool, don't you think? Besides," she continued with a sly grin, "music boxes are supposed to be my lucky item for today."

"And since when do you listen to Oha-Asa?!"

* * *

They ended up buying the music boxes.

Daiki even insisted on paying for them, even though Tetsuna had offered to split the cost.

It was getting late, so they started walking back home. The sky was a lovely orange-red color, and Tetsuna was in better spirits now.

"So you want to tell me what this is all about?" Daiki asked her as they walked.

"What do you mean?"

"You suddenly drag me out to go shopping, and for some reason you're listening to Midorima's ridiculous horoscopes. It's just kind of strange. So why?"

"I don't know," she said looking down at her feet. "I just…"

 _I love you._ The words were just at the tip of her tongue, and yet she still couldn't bring herself to say them. How much longer could she delay them, anyways?

"I missed this," she said, gesturing between the two of them. "It's been a while since we last hung out together, so I just said the first thing I thought of, which just happened to be shopping. Sorry if it inconvenienced you."

Daiki shook his head. "No, it's fine. You're right, though. It has been a while since we hung out. I've missed this, too."

He smiled at her then, and her heart soared.

"Are you ever going to start coming to practice?" she blurted.

His smile immediately fell.

 _Damn,_ she thought. _Why did I have to say that of all things?_

"There's no point in going to practice," Daiki said stiffly, facing away from her. "The more I practice, the better I become. I don't want to get better anymore."

"If you won't practice, will you at least come watch? Or maybe just come once a week, or something like that."

He gave her a long look and sighed. "I don't know, Tetsu. It's not that simple, you know."

"At least come tomorrow," she pressed on. "I have something very important to tell you, so please come to practice tomorrow. "Then, if you still don't want to come, I won't bother you about it anymore."

"Something important?"

"Something _very_ important."

"Alright," Daiki said at last. "I'll come."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Tetsuna grinned and he smiled back at her.

* * *

Though skies were gray as she walked towards the gym after school the next day, Tetsuna was perfectly happy and excited for practice.

Daiki had promised to come to practice, and she was finally ready to tell him how she felt about him.

After getting home yesterday, she had strung the key for the music box on a necklace chain. She reached up and touched the key, smiling as she thought about the two music boxes that she and Daiki now possessed. She had taken the harmony, and he the melody. It was just like their plays in basketball.

Daiki was the main star who made all the shots, and she the support that got the ball to wherever he needed it to be. And even though he could win all on his own, she made his plays smoother and stronger.

Tetsuna mentally rehearsed what she would say to Daiki. She had been thinking of it all night, and had gotten little sleep as result. But now she felt pretty certain on what she wanted to tell him.

 _"I love you,"_ she would say. _"I've been meaning to tell you this for some time, now, but I could never seem to find the courage. But I want you to know that I love you and I want you to be happy. I know that you're having a hard time right now, and I want to be there for you and support you. I get that things are difficult right now, but let's work through it together. I love you, Daiki, and I want only the best for you."_

It was a bit cheesy, and she wasn't quite sure if it was adequate. But it was what she had decided on, and she would follow through with it.

She took a deep breath and entered the gym.

Daiki wasn't there yet, but he had promised to come, hadn't he?

Tetsuna smiled to herself and headed over to the locker room to get dressed.

* * *

It had started to rain and Tetsuna was beginning to worry. Practice began ten minutes ago and Daiki still hadn't arrived. And to add to her worries, her teammates were getting along far worse than usual. Murasakibara was complaining about not wanting to practice, and Akashi seemed to be reaching the end of his patience.

Tetsuna watched them from the side, not quite sure what she could say to stop their bickering.

"Tetsuna," Akashi called out. He looked at her, eyes both still red, and nodded towards to gym doors. "Go look for Aomine. I know you're worried."(2)

With a grateful nod towards her childhood friend, she ran outside into the rain. She didn't know where Daiki was, but there were a few places where she could check. She went to the roof first, and when she didn't find him there, she ran back to their classroom. He wasn't there either.

She finally found him ten minutes later, sitting by the river that ran behind their school.

He noticed her before she even said anything.

"Daiki," she began. "Why aren't you at practice? You promised me yesterday that you would come. Did something happen?"

"Why?" he asked in a strange voice, one she'd never heard him use before. He stood up slowly. "Why should I practice? Why, when I'll win matches even if I don't want to? Should I play at full strength like you told me to, just so I can more thoroughly crush opponents who have already lost their will to fight?"

Tetsuna realized that something had definitely happened between yesterday and today. He seemed fine when they parted ways yesterday, and had even said that he was looking forward to going to practice to hear whatever it is that she had to say to him.

Tetsuna clenched her fists. "I understand, but—"

"Understand?" Daiki interrupted, turning to face her, though he wouldn't quite meet her gaze. "What could you possible understand? Tell me, what can someone like you who can't even do anything on your own, understand? You know, I wish I could have been born like you, Tetsu. I could've had so much more of a goal in life."

She knew that his words were coming from a place beyond reason, but it still hurt to hear him talking like that. She fumbled for a reply, feeling tears forming in her eyes.

"I'm also envious of Daiki and everyone else," she managed. "If I could, I'd like to try dunking, making three-pointers, and dribbling past my opponents. But it's no use lamenting over things I can't do, so I'm putting all I have into my passes."

"Passes? To who?"

Tetsuna's eyes widened at those words. "Daiki…"

"To Kise? Midorima? Or, if they're for me, to what end? Even though I can win by myself, against anyone, even without your passes?"

His words at the end of Kamizaki match flashed through her mind.

 _The only one who can win against me is me._

"Daiki!" she started, trying to stop his rant.

He ignored her completely. "I haven't received a single pass from you since then. Even though it was only a little while ago, it feels like it's been so long. Don't you get it, Tetsuna?" He looked at her then, raw sadness in those blue eyes of his. "I don't even remember how to receive your passes anymore."

"Daiki, why?" she whispered, her voice hoarse. She was crying now, though the rain hid her tears.

"I won't be coming to practice anymore," he told her, beginning to walk away. "I'm sorry Tetsu, I really am."

She turned and watched as he walked away, walked away from _her._

"Why?" Her voice was still a whisper. "Daiki…"

She continued to say his name, though he probably couldn't hear her over the distance and the rain.

"I love you!" she yelled out, but he was already gone.

She crumpled to her knees, tears streaming down her face. She wrapped her arms around herself and bent forward, sobs racking her body.

 _Why why why why why why why?_

She was feeling too much at once.

Confusion, misery, heartbreak, despair.

And cold.

So very, very cold.

* * *

 **(1) Cylinder - the thing inside the music box with the bumps that turns to produce sound**

 **(2) At this point, the Emperor hasn't emerged in Akashi yet, so he still calls everyone by last name. Tetsuna is the exception since they're childhood friends.**

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **By the way, what does everyone think of the story so far?**


	6. We'll Be There for Sure

**Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, followed, and/or favorited this story!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke.**

* * *

Taiga walked through the park, looking for Tetsuna. She had disappeared after they left the ramen shop and their coach had sent them off to look for the teal-haired girl. As he searched, Taiga passed by a caged-in basketball court, where three boys were running around passing a basketball to each other. Taiga smiled at the sight; it had been a while since he'd seen people playing street basketball in Japan. Then he noticed two familiar people standing just beyond the court.

Tetsuna and Kise.

 _That guy,_ Taiga thought, narrowing his eyes at the blonde. _Just what is he up to?_

He rounded the corner of the basketball court and approached the two. As he drew nearer, he heard snippets of their conversation.

"If you think so highly of Kagami because of his attitude towards basketball, some day you and Kagami will part ways," Kise was saying. "The biggest difference between me and the other four isn't our physical abilities. They all have a special ability not even I can imitate. I realized during today's game that he's still learning. And just like the Generation of Miracles, he has a special ability. Right now, he's still an immature challenger. He's enjoying the thrill of recklessly playing stronger opponents. However, someday he'll achieve the level of the Generation of Miracles and grow apart from his team for sure. Won't he be a different person then?"

Taiga's eyes widened as he heard the words, but he was even more surprised by Tetsuna's reaction. The calm and level-headed girl who usually wore an expressionless face, who never showed what she's thinking and feeling, was very obviously disturbed by Kise's words. Her hands were trembling and her grip on the basketball she was holding tightened.

Taiga, who was now very annoyed with Kise, marched over to the two of them and for the third time that day, planted his hand on her head.

"Hey, why'd you suddenly disappear like that?" he asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Kagami-kun…" Tetsuna said, surprised at his sudden appearance.

"And you," Taiga continued, turning to Kise. "Just what are you doing kidnapping Kuroko?"

"What? Who cares if I talk to her a little bit?" Kise shot back. "And what are _you_ doing here? Were you listening in on our conversation?"

"I sure as hell was!" Taiga snapped. Honestly, he really couldn't stand Kise. If all the other Miracles were as standoffish and annoying as him, then Taiga really wasn't looking forward to having to deal with their big egos.

Some angry shouts diverted his attention away from Kise and towards the basketball court behind them. Five new people had shown up, and were seeming to be antagonizing the three who had been there first.

"What are those thugs doing?" Taiga muttered, watching as the five newcomers approached the other three, arrogant looks on their faces. He then realized that Tetsuna had disappeared.

"Where did that girl go?" he wondered. He turned to Kise, who looked just as confused as him. They both looked back at the basketball court, and saw a teal-haired girl standing in front of one of the five thugs, spinning a basketball on her finger with ease.

"Tetsunacchi?!"

* * *

"You…Just what in the world were you thinking?" Taiga demanded, glaring at Tetsuna. They were standing outside of the basketball court, having just defeated the five thugs. "Were you planning on winning if it had turned into a fight?"

"No," she deadpanned, expression unchanged. "I would've definitely been beat up."

Her response made him even more irritated.

"Tetsunacchi, you're pretty amazing," Kise mused.

"That's not the point here!" Taiga yelled, turning on him.

"It's just, I thought those guys were terrible," Tetsuna informed them. "I just wanted to let them know that."

"You should've considered the consequences first!" Taiga snapped.

Tetsuna blinked at him calmly. "I forgot to."

"Don't give me that 'I forgot to' crap!"

 _Why do I have to get so worked up because of her anyways?_ He wondered.

"I should get going," Kise said, interrupting their banter. There was an amused expression on his face as he slung his bag over his shoulder and waved at them. "I finally got to play with Tetsunacchi, so I'm happy. And don't think I've forgotten about my revenge, Kagamicchi!"

"Kagamicchi?!"

"Ryou-chan adds '-cchi' to the names of people he acknowledges," Tetsuna told him. "That's great for you."

"I don't want that!" Taiga argued.

"Don't lose in the preliminaries!" Kise called back to them as he walked away.

"Like hell we will!"

The rest of their team found them right then, and Riko ran over and gripped Tetsuna by the shoulders.

"There you are! Seriously!" she snapped. "Don't just take off like that. People will worry, you know."

"Sorry," Tetsuna muttered.

Riko sighed and released her. "Whatever. It's fine. Just don't do it again. At least tell someone if you're just going to disappear like that!"

Tetsuna nodded in agreement, and the team headed on to their respective homes.

* * *

"Kagami-kun, can I ask you something?" Tetsuna said to him once they had parted ways with the rest of their team. The two lived in the same direction, so Taiga had offered to walk her home.

"Sure, go ahead."

"How much of my conversation with Ryou-chan did you overhear?"

Taiga tensed up at the question. He'd figured that Tetsuna would ask him about it eventually, but still…

He shrugged. "Just that last bit. But it doesn't matter since I have no plans on leaving my team behind! And just who does he think he is, deciding what's going to become of me when I get stronger? What kind of person does he think I am? Who said that becoming stronger means separating from a team, huh?"

He was getting annoyed just thinking about Kise's words.

Tetsuna regarded him with a long look. "I don't think Ryou-chan said that because he thinks you're a bad person or anything. It's just that it is what happened before. With the Generation of Miracles. They all became stronger and just changed. They stopped relying on each other as a team and worked on their own as individuals. They got stronger and left the team behind. And I was left behind as well…"

She trailed off, and her expression was so miserable that Taiga felt sad as well. He had no idea how to comfort her, especially since his understanding of the situation was so minimal.

"Well, that's why you're going to beat them and show them that they were wrong to leave you and their team behind," he said at last, grinning at her.

"I suppose so," she murmured, though she did not look consoled. "I can only hope that defeating them will be enough to make them go back to the way they used to be."

A moment of silence stretched between them and they continued walking.

"Was it really that bad?" Taiga inquired after a while. "What happened between you and those five. I mean, you and Kise seem to be getting along fine."

She shot a sharp look at him, as if irritated by his prying. But she exhaled and answered him anyways. "It _was_ bad. Really bad. To me, at least. They did some things during our third year at Teiko that I can't condone, and I left the team as a result. But after I became friends with Ryou-chan in our second year, we've always gotten along fine. It's true that I was irritated with him during third year, but that's not why…I mean…I still consider him a close friend. When it comes to returning to the way things used to be, Ryou-chan isn't the one I have doubts about."

"One of the others, then?"

She nodded, though she did not elaborate further.

Taiga didn't push her either. Instead, he said, "Well, just try your best and do what you can. I, and the rest of our team, will be with you as well. And we'll defeat the Generation of Miracles together as a team!"

A small smile formed on Tetsuna's lips. "Thanks, Kagami-kun. You're pretty amazing, you know?"

He gaped at her, opening and closing his mouth at a loss for words. "Shut up!" Taiga sputtered, stunned by her sudden words, much to her amusement.

 _No, Tetsuna_ , he thought, thinking about how she'd so bravely stood up to those five thugs who could've beaten her up just because she was horrified at the way they were treating others. _You're the one who's amazing._

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Tetsuna parted ways with Kagami after he walked her to her house ("It's huge!" he had said upon seeing it) and told him to be careful on his way home.

She opened the gate to her house and walked down the driveway towards the dark and empty house.

While her parents' successful work meant that she would have no financial problems, Tetsuna couldn't help but wish that they had normal jobs that would allow them to come home after work each day. But since they were co-owners of a large business, they were always away on trips, leaving Tetsuna on her own most of the time. Her parents made sure to call her every day, but she was still lonely.

As children, she and Akashi would stay over at each other's houses whenever their parents left on business trips. But her childhood friend was in Kyoto now, while she was still in Tokyo, making such things impossible.

She sighed as she entered and sagged against the front door. It had been a long day and she was exhausted from all the excitement. And the preliminaries were coming up soon, so she had to get ready for that.

Tetsuna walked through the quiet house and into her room. She set her bag down by her bed and flopped onto her chair. Her gaze landed on her desk drawer and she stared at it for a minute before pulling it open, revealing the music box and the key that came with it. The key was still attached to the necklace chain that she had strung it on.

After her disastrous last conversation with Daiki, she had tugged the necklace with the key on it from her neck and had hurled it into the nearby river. She had regretted that action immediately, and went into the river to search for the key. That was where Midorima found her an hour later, up to her knees in river water and completely soaked from the pouring rain.

In the end, she had found the key, though she could no longer bear to wear it around her neck. She put both it and the music box into her drawer, out of sight.

Though not out of mind.

She thought about it constantly, wondering if Daiki still had his or if he had thrown it out. She wondered how he felt about the box, whether he looked at it with regret, anger, or some other emotion.

She removed the music box from the drawer and brushed off the thick layer of dust that had gathered over it. The box fit snugly in her palm, and she glided her fingers over the smooth wood, fingering the clasp that connected it to its missing other half and the keyhole on top of the music box. She took out the key next, fitting it in and giving it a turn.

A few notes rang out, filling the silence of her room. But the notes sounded strange, as the music box was meant to operate as a pair. Without its other half, the song was just simply incomplete.

 _Has Daiki even looked at the music box since then?_ She wondered.

Her phone rang suddenly, jarring her from her thoughts. She smiled a bit when she saw who was calling.

"Hey, Tsuki-chan," she said when she answered the phone.

"Tetsu-chan!" her friend greeted cheerfully. She then continued with a note of hesitance, "Midorin told me that your team played a match against Ki-kun's team and won?"

"Yeah," Tetsuna confirmed. "It was a close thing though. It really could've gone either way. But that just makes it more interesting."

"I wish I could've seen it," Satsuki said. "It's been a while since I've seen you play."

"The Inter-High's coming up soon," Tetsuna told her. "You'll get to see me play then."

Satsuki made a humming noise. "I suppose. Hey, Tetsu-chan?"

"Yes?"

"I also heard from Midorin that you…found a new partner."

Tetsuna froze. She hadn't been expecting that, though it made sense now why Satsuki had sounded so hesitant earlier. And just what was Midorima thinking, reporting everything to Satsuki like that?

"…Yes," Tetsuna said warily. "His name is Kagami Taiga. He's a first year, like me. Does…Daiki know about this?"

"Not yet," Satsuki said, and Tetsuna let out a breath of relief. "But you can't keep it from his forever, you know?"

"That's not my intention," Tetsuna protested.

"I know that, Tetsu-chan," Satsuki said patiently.

Silence stretched between the two friends.

"What happened between the two of you?" Satsuki asked at last in a weary voice. "After the Kamizaki game, you guys didn't talk for a month. Then you called one night and told me that things were going to get better. But the next day, the two of you suddenly weren't talking anymore. When I asked him about it, he just ignored me, and you won't tell me anything either."

"It's complicated," Tetsuna murmured. She thought of the promise to come to practice that Daiki hadn't kept and the sudden change in his behavior between the day he made that promise and the next. "Even I'm not too sure what happened."

"And you haven't talked to him since then, right?"

"That's right…But I have a plan. A plan to fix everything."

A beat of silence. Then, "I'm listening."

* * *

"We've got three weeks until the Inter-High preliminaries," Hyuuga announced at practice a few days later. He handed out copies of the tournament bracket to everyone. "We fell one step short last year, but we'll definitely go through this year. We'll be facing a lot of strong schools, but our biggest and strongest opponent if Shutoku High School."

"Shin-chan's school," Tetsuna murmured.

Kagami turned to her. "Who?"

"One of my former teammates and one of the Generation of Miracles. Midorima Shintaro ."

The redhead grinned. "Great. I can't wait to take him on. What kind of person is he, Kuroko?"

"I doubt you would believe me if I told you," she said, thinking about his three-pointers that she'd never seen miss. "However, as Ryou-chan said, the other four are on another level. If they've gotten better, I cannot imagine how good they are now."

Kagami looked even more excited upon hearing that.

"Before we can play Shutoku, we have to play our first game! Let's make sure we're on the ball!" Hyuuga announce enthusiastically with the rest of the team echoing their agreement.

"By the way, where's the coach?" Tsuchida asked, looking around the gym.

"She went to observe our first opponent's practice game," Hyuuga answered. At that moment, the doors to the gym swung open and Riko walked in, a worried look on her face.

"She was skipping when we were going to play against Kaijou, but she's not skipping today," Kawahara noted.

"Coach, are you going to skip today?" Tsuchida asked.

Riko glared at him. "As if!" she snapped.

Tetsuna was taken back by Riko's reaction, and her teammates tensed up at the harsh tone Riko was using. She hadn't ever seen the brunette like this before. Just how tough was their next opponent if they could make Riko this upset?

"Morons," Hyuuga said. "She wouldn't act like an idiot over an official game. But you do seem upset," he said, a note of concern entering his voice as he turned towards Riko. "Are they good?"

"We shouldn't be worrying about Shutoku when our first match isn't looking good," she said, much to the shock of the team. "One of their players might give us trouble. We can watch the video later, but take a look at this picture first."

She handed her phone to Hyuuga, who flipped it open and held it out for the whole team to see.

"It's cute," Tetsuna said upon seeing the brown and white kitten that appeared on the screen.

"It is cute, but…" Hyuuga said warily, giving Riko a confused look.

Riko slapped one hand over her eyes, and waved at them with the other. "Sorry, it's the next one."

Hyuuga changed the picture and everyone gasped when a foreigner with dark skin showed up one the screen.

"His name is Papa Mbaye Siki," Riko informed them. "He's two meters tall and weighs 87 kilograms. He's an exchange student from Senegal."

The team muttered in surprise at these facts, eyes widening in shock.

"Senegal? He's huge. Two meters?" Hyuuga stuttered.

"Can they do this?" Koganei asked.

"An exchange student—Sorry, but where's Senegal?" Izuki said.

Kagami, however, seemed unperturbed.

"He's just big," he said plainly.

"Is he really a high schooler?" Tetsuna wondered aloud.

"This Papa Mbaye…What was it?" Hyuuga said, stumbling over the foreigner's name.

Her team continued to look at the picture while trying to figure out how to pronounce his name. It was foreign to them, so they were having troubles. Riko sighed in irritation and told Tetsuna to come up with a nickname for their new opponent.

Tetsuna tapped a finger to her chin as she considered. _His first name is Papa, so…_

"How about 'Dad', then?"

"All right then," Riko said. "This Dad, he's not just tall. His arms and legs are long as well. In other words, everything about him about him is big. More and more schools are recruiting foreign students to increase their strength. Our next opponent, Shinkyo High, was only a middle tier school until last year, but with the addition of a single foreign player, they've become a completely different team. Their opponents can't reach high enough. Because of this one simple reason, no one can stop him."

"But we can't just do nothing," Kagami said.

Riko grinned at him. "Who said would? In light of that, Kagami-kun and Tetsuna-chan, starting tomorrow the two of you will have your own training regimen. The preliminaries start on May 16th. Until then, you won't even have time to complain!"

* * *

Riko's training regimen for Tetsuna comprised mainly of exercises to build her endurance. She ran laps around the school every day, then ran drills in the gym with the rest of her team. It was tough work, but gratifying as she became stronger each day.

On Friday, the day before the preliminaries, Tetsuna went out for an evening stroll. She purchased a popsicle at a convenience store, thinking of all the times that she had done so with Daiki.

She was just finishing the popsicle when a familiar voice caught her attention.

"Pedal faster, Takao," the voice said.

Tetsuna turned to see Midorima sitting in a cart that was attached to a bicycle, and a black-haired stranger pedaling the bike.

"I'm going as fast as I can!" Takao snapped.

"Shin-chan?" Tetsuna exclaimed upon seeing her friend.

The bike screeched to a halt and the green-haired sharpshooter looked at her, surprised. "Tsuna-chan?"

Takao looked between the two of them, a look of realization dawning on his face. Midorima hopped out of the cart and turned to Takao. "Go on ahead," he said briskly. "I'll see you tomorrow. Don't be late."

Takao rolled his eyes and nodded, giving Tetsuna an amused look before biking away.

"Your teammate?" Tetsuna asked once he was out of sight.

Midorima nodded.

"Making him pull you around like that is mean, Shin-chan," she teased.

"It's only because he lost at rock-paper-scissors. And I won because I have my lucky item with me. Today's item is a pen," he declared, holding up a red ballpoint pen.

 _This part of him never changes,_ Tetsuna mused.

"I heard from Ryou-chan that you were at the practice game we had."

"Yes," he said, nodding. "I was curious to see what kind of team you had chosen, so I stopped by for a while to watch the match. But even though you won, I still feel like you're wasting your abilities on such a weak team. The others agree with me as well."

Tetsuna sighed, tired of having heard this so many times. She'd received numerous texts and phone calls from Akashi, asking her when she was going to transfer to a stronger school. Midorima and Kise had done the same, though not quite as often. She considered refuting his statement about her team, but decided against it as words would not be enough to change his mindset.

"I like it there," was all she said.

"And your teammates are treating you well?" Midorima inquired.

She smiled and nodded. "Yes, they're all really nice."

"That idiotic redhead isn't giving you any trouble?"

"You mean Kagami-kun?" He nodded in confirmation. "No, not at all. He is a bit of an idiot, but he's not a bad basketball player. He's reliable on the court."

Midorima made a dissatisfied noise at that statement. "We shall see."

"And you told Tsuki-chan about him, didn't you?" she asked, an accusatory tone entering her voice.

"I may have mentioned it to her," he said as he adjusted his glasses.

"Did you have to?" she mumbled.

He gave her a long look. "This isn't about me telling Momoi so much as it is about Aomine finding out, isn't it? You don't want him to know about Kagami Taiga. You don't want him to know that you've replaced him—"

"I haven't replaced him!" Tetsuna burst out, suddenly furious. "I could never replace him. Kagami-kun isn't supposed to be Daiki's replacement at all. Kagami-kun is just Kagami-kun. True, he and Daiki are similar in some respects, but to me, they're two completely different people. Kagami-kun is not a replacement. And Daiki is irreplaceable to me. So don't say such things!"

Her chest heaved with the outburst and she clenched her hands into fists as she glared at her green-haired friend.

"I'm sorry, Tsuna-chan," Midorima said, remorsefully. "I didn't mean to upset you. It was a poor choice of words on my part. But I have to ask, even after everything that has happened between the two of you, everything that he said to you, why do you still care so deeply about him?"

Tetsuna let out a long breath and looked up at the sky. "I don't know," she murmured, all the anger she was feeling earlier fading away as she took in the sunset. "It's strange, isn't it? That I can't even understand my own feelings."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually," Midorima said. "You're smart like that."

"Thanks, Shin-chan."

"I'll walk you home," Midorima offered. They walked in peaceful silence for a while, watching as the sun inched down closer to the horizon. Streetlights flickered on, illuminating the street. The lights in some shops flickered off, workers going home for the day.

"Your preliminaries are tomorrow, right?" he asked once they arrived in front of her large and still empty home.

"Yep," she replied, grateful for the change of subject. "We're playing against Shinkyo High. They have this very tall foreign exchange student from Senegal."

"I've heard of him. Papa something-or-other."

"We're calling him Dad."

He chuckled at that. "Well, good luck tomorrow. I hope to see you in the championship game."

She grinned. "Oh, we'll be there for sure."

* * *

The sun was shining brightly when Tetsuna met up with her team on the day of the preliminaries. Everyone looked excited, anticipating the games to come.

"Everyone's here, right?" Riko asked, smiling as she snapped her phone shut. The team smiled back at her.

"Let's go!" Hyuuga declared, and they set off towards the building where the preliminaries were being held.

As they walked, Tetsuna looked over at Kagami and saw that his eyes were bloodshot.

"You couldn't sleep again?" she asked, remembering that the same thing had happened on the day of their practice game with Kaijou.

"Shut up," Kagami grumbled at her.

They walked into the gymnasium and began their standard warm-ups. While they did so, Tetsuna looked over their opponents and saw that someone was missing.

"Dad doesn't seem to be here," Hyuuga said, noticing the same thing that she had.

"Now that you mention it…" Izuki said, also noticing the absence of the foreign player.

A loud bang got their attention, and the team turned to see a tall, dark-skinned man standing outside the doorway. He was so tall that they couldn't even see his face as it was higher than the doorframe.

"Everything is so short in Japan," the tall man muttered as he ducked under the doorway and entered the gym. He walked over to Shinkyo's side of the gym and conversed with the team, apologizing for his tardiness.

"So that's Dad…" Tetsuna said.

Beside her, Kagami grinned. "He looks interesting."

Tetsuna watched closely as Hyuuga ran after his basketball that had rolled over to Shinkyo's captain, Tanimura Yusuke.

"Ah, sorry about that," Hyuuga said, picking up the ball.

"Did you guys really beat Kaijou?" the brown-haired captain inquired.

"It was just a practice game," Hyuuga answered.

"I see," Tanimura said, smiling smugly. "I guess the Generation of Miracles aren't as strong as we thought."

 _If you think like that, you'll be in for a big surprise_ , Tetsuna thought, narrowing her eyes at him.

"The Generation of Miracles lost?" Papa said in heavily accented Japanese. "They brought me here to beat them. I'm disappointed they're so weak."

Tetsuna's irritation grew with those words, and she felt even more irritated when Papa started walking towards the Seirin team and crashed into her, not realizing that she was right in front of him. She didn't know if it was because of her lack of presence, the large height difference, or a combination of both.

He looked down and finally realized that she was there, surprise registering on his face. He then proceeded to pick her up.

"No, little girl, children shouldn't be on the court."

 _Can I punch this guy?_ Tetsuna thought.

"I'm not a child," She said through gritted teeth. "I'm a player."

Papa's eyes widened in shock. "You're a player?" he said, setting her down at last. "The Generation of Miracles lost to someone like you? Are all of them children?" He shrugged his shoulders and walked away, leaving all of Seirin's team save Tetsuna in a laughing fit.

Tetsuna was too irritated to laugh. The guy had just insulted her former teammates. Even though a lot of bad stuff had happened between them, they were still her friends, and it did not sit well with her to have to listen to someone insult them.

"Honestly, I'm starting to get annoyed," she said. Her teammates sobered up immediately, smiles dropping from their faces and looking a bit nervous at Tetsuna's words and tone.

Kagami was the only one who was still grinning. "You don't like to lose, do you? I guess we'd better show Dad why he shouldn't piss of kids!"

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**


	7. A Sight He Never Wanted to See Again

**So I went and titled all the chapters so far, and every chapter from now on will be titled as well.**

 **Parts written in different perspectives are separated by: XXXXXXXXXX**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke.**

* * *

Tetsuna watched smugly as Papa's shot missed once again.

Though Shinkyo had gotten off to a good start, with Papa's height allowing him to make all his shots and block all of Seirin's, Seirin was now steadily catching up to their opponents. The reason for this was one redhead who had undergone serious defense training the past few weeks. He had improved immensely as a result, and was successfully stopping all of Papa's shots.

She smiled softly as Kagami guarded Papa, keeping up with all of the foreigner's movements. Then, Papa took a shot that once again bounced off of the rim, much to Seirin's delight.

But Tetsuna didn't know how much longer they could keep up with this method. Kagami had his limits, and applying all his focus and pressure on Papa would be taxing for him. He seemed to realize the same thing and sent her a look, tilting his head towards Papa. She nodded, understanding what she needed to do.

She stood close by, watching as Kagami approached Papa.

"Hey, let me tell you two things," Kagami said. "First, I'll definitely block your shots in this game."

Papa narrowed his eyes at the words. "There's no way you can do that. I won't lose to a team that has a girl on it."

Tetsuna felt a twitch of irritation at the words, and Kagami seemed to feel the same as his eyes narrowed.

"And second," Kagami continued, running past Papa and towards Seirin's basket. Izuki passed the ball and it went in Papa's direction. A smile appeared on the tall foreigner's face as he made to grab the ball.

 _Not so fast,_ Tetsuna thought as she intercepted the pass and sent in towards Kagami, who immediately jumped and dunked the ball, just as they had planned.

"This girl might give you some trouble," Kagami said, grinning as he landed back on the court.

"By the way, could you please stop referring to me as 'this girl'?" Tetsuna said. "I have a name, you know."

Her sudden appearance was greeted with the usual reaction.

"Whoa, where did she come from?"

"Hey, did you see that pass? It came out of nowhere!"

"A _girl_ made that pass?"

Tetsuna sighed, used to hearing all the remarks but still irritated at them. She then turned triumphantly to Papa and smiled.

 _I'll make you regret your comments about my teammates,_ she thought.

* * *

The first quarter ended with the score being 23-8, Seirin in the lead.

"Tetsuna-chan has a time limit, so we're subbing you out here," Riko said. "Because we have to start reserving Tetsuna-chan's strength, we'll lose some power in the middle of the game. Don't let them close the gap. They don't have any dangerous players aside from Dad. Ultimately, it comes down to how well Kagami can handle him. Are you up for it?"

"Just leave it to me," said Kagami with a grin.

The second quarter began, and Kagami continued to mark Papa. However, the foreigner had strengthened his resolve, and made a shot that Kagami couldn't block.

"I'm serious now!" Papa announced. "I will not lose!"

Kagami seemed pleased by this. "I couldn't ask for more. I'm starting to get excited, Dad!"

The match continued, and with eight minutes left in the second quarter, the score was 12-24, with Seirin in the lead.

Hyuuga took a shot from the three-point line, but a Shinkyo player appeared in front of him, causing the shot to fall short.

However, Kagami saw the trajectory of the ball, and was there under the goal to catch the rebound. He jumped up at the same time as Papa, but the redhead managed to get the ball first. He jumped again and sank the ball into the basket.

"Okay, nice shot!" Kawahara exclaimed.

"Nice rebound!" cheered Koganei.

Kagami sent a smug grin towards Papa, who gritted his teeth at him.

"Papa, don't let it bother you," Tanimura called out whilst dribbling the ball, having noted his teammate's frustration. "We'll give you the ball."

He passed the ball to one of his teammates, who in turned tossed it over to Papa. Kagami continued to guard him and jumped up as Papa prepared to take the shot. However, instead of shooting, Papa passed the ball to one of his teammates, much to their surprise.

"What's wrong, Papa? You had that! One more time, Papa!"

The ball was thrown back to him, and he jumped up. Kagami jumped as well, and it appeared to Tetsuna like the redhead was jumping higher and higher each time.

"Kagami's amazing," Fukuda commented, voicing Tetsuna's thoughts. "He's more than keeping him in check. He's not losing to him at all. Looks like his practice is paying off."

"Um," Riko began hesitantly. "But don't you think he's trying too hard?"

As she watched Kagami, Kise's words resurfaced in her thoughts.

 _"Someday he'll achieve the level of the Generation of Miracles and grow apart from his team for sure. Won't he be a different person then?"_

Tetsuna squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fists. She hated admitting it, but what Kise had said was a possibility. It had happened before, after all. But she didn't want to think about that. It hurt too much to think of what could happen and what already had.

 _An unreturned fist-bump._

 _Crying alone in the rain._

No, she didn't want to think about it at all.

* * *

The match continued with Tetsuna on the bench for the entirety of the fourth quarter. Seirin kept their lead the whole time, but the gap was slowly closing. When there were still five minutes left in the fourth quarter, the score was 51-60.

 _They're getting too close,_ Tetsuna thought, itching to go back out on the court to help her team. Shinkyo's spirits were rising as well, and the players all had determined looks on their faces. Tetsuna looked over at Riko, who looked concerned about the narrowing point gap as well.

"Tetsuna-chan," Riko said, turning to the teal-haired girl. "Can you go the last five minutes?"

"Actually, I've been ready for a while," Tetsuna said.

Riko bowed her head with an embarrassed smile.

"Sorry," she said. Then she got to her feet and pointed towards the court. "Then go!"

Tetsuna nodded at her coach and ran back out onto the court.

With her misdirection back at full strength, she immediately began stealing passes and getting the ball to her teammates. They made good use of her passes and steadily increased the point difference once more.

"Damn it! There she is again!" one of Shinkyo's players grumbled as Tetsuna stole the ball away.

"What's going on with those passes?" Tanimura asked irritably.

"Don't let your guard down until it's over," Hyuuga told his teammates. "Let's get them!"

Papa received the ball again, and dribbled it with a look of determination on his face even as Kagami guarded him. He jumped up, ready to take a shot, but Kagami was there to stop him.

"You said you were disappointed in the Generation of Miracles, but you overestimate yourself. Compared to you, they're much stronger!" he bellowed as he knocked the ball out of Papa's hands.

As the ball bounced onto the floor, the buzzer sounded, signaling the end of the match. The score was 67-79, and Seirin was the victor!

The referee blew the whistle and yelled out, "Game over!"

Cheers went up throughout the Seirin team, and Tetsuna smiled at her teammates. After celebrating their victory for a few minutes, they proceeded to the middle of the gym for the customary end-of-match line up.

"67-79, Seirin!" the referee announced.

"Thank you very much," all the players said, bowing.

As she bowed, Tetsuna saw a certain green-haired sharpshooter standing on the second floor. She caught his gaze and smiled. He returned the smile and nodded before leaving the arena.

* * *

Papa approached them after the match as they were packing up.

"I lost," he said to Kagami, confusing the redhead. "Please play hard for me in the next game."

"Huh?" Kagami said, still confused. "…Sure."

Papa smirked. "I mean, you're an idiot! An idi—"

Before he could finish the taunt, Tanimura appeared and dragged him away. Which was good, because Kagami looked as if he wanted to beat up the foreigner.

"You moron!" Papa yelled as he was hauled away by his teammate. "I won't lose next time!"

Tetsuna stepped forward and glared at him. She still had something to say to that arrogant exchange student from Senegal.

"Papa!" she called out in the loudest voice she could muster. Everyone turned to face her, and Tanimura stopped hauling Papa and stopped walking. "The next time you insult the Generation of Miracles," she began in a threatening voice, "you won't get a way so easily."

His eyes widened and he gulped.

"That's all," she said in her normal deadpan voice. She slung her bag and began to walk towards the door. She turned when she realized that her team was still standing behind her, staring with unreadable expressions on their faces.

"What?" she asked innocently.

Kagami was the first to recover from his surprise. He sighed deeply and flashed a grin at her. "Remind me not to mess with you."

She smiled.

"Alright!" Riko declared, also coming out of shock. "Let's go on to the next game!"

* * *

After winning against Meijo Academy in the fourth game, Riko announced that they would go see Shutoku's match next. She gave them a ten-minute break before they were to meet back up at the gym to go watch the game. During that time, Tetsuna stepped outside to get some fresh air.

Her cellphone rang, and her eyes widened when she saw who was calling her.

"Sei-chan?"

"Tetsuna. How have your games been so far?" her childhood friend inquired, short and to the point.

She smiled a little as she answered. "After we won against Shinkyo in the preliminaries, we beat Jitsuzen High with a score of 118 to 51," she told him. "But I was benched for the entire game." She heard Akashi chuckle and she rolled her eyes. "Then we played against Kinga High."

"Ah," Akashi said thoughtfully. "They were in the last year's best 16. Their offense and defense is very well balanced. But you won, didn't you?"

"Yes," Tetsuna said with a grin. "We just finished a match against Meijo, and we beat them easily with a score of 108 to 41."

Her smile grew wider as she thought about the match against those five thugs she had run into at the park. She had been as surprised to see them as they had been to see her, but she kept that surprise from her expression. They, however, were not able to conceal the fear they felt when they saw that she and Kagami were two of their opponents. The five were incredibly nervous the whole time, giving Seirin an easy victory.

"Well, it's good to hear that you're doing fine, even if you're at a no-name school like Seirin."

"Sei-chan," she chided, rolling her eyes, though she knew that he would bring it up sooner or later. "I have to go now. My team and I are going to go watch Shin-chan's game soon."

"Alright. Good luck, Tetsuna."

"You too, Sei-chan."

 _Not that you need it._

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

The first thing the Shintaro saw when he entered the gymnasium with his team was Tetsuna's team, Seirin. The girl herself, however, wasn't present. He looked through the team three times to make sure that she really wasn't there, and that it wasn't because of her lack of presence that he didn't see her. Before Shintaro could even begin to wonder where she had gotten off to, he found himself being approached by one Kagami Taiga. Though he had seen him twice before—once at the practice match against Kaijou, and once at the preliminary match against Shinkyo—this was his first time meeting Tetsuna's new partner face to face.

"Hey," the redhead said. "You're Midorima Shintaro, aren't you?"

"Yes, but who are you?" He ignored Takao, who was chuckling behind him. His teammate knew that he knew who Kagami was, and was most likely laughing at him for being so prideful.

"Handshake?" Shintaro asked as Kagami stuck out a hand and grinned, all without saying a word. Shintaro sighed and transferred the teddy bear he was holding from his left hand to his right, and held out his left hand to Kagami. However, instead of shaking his hand, the redhead got out a marker and scribbled 'Seirin Number 10 Kagami Taiga' on his palm. Shintaro's eyes widened at the action.

"You look like the kind of guy who'd claim he doesn't remember me if I introduced myself normally," Kagami stated. "I want the guy who I'm about to get revenge on for my seniors to remember me."

"Revenge?" Shintaro said skeptically as he adjusted his glasses with his bandaged fingers. "You don't really think before you speak, do you?" _To think that this kind of guy has been hanging around Tsuna-chan,_ he thought irritably, shooting a glare at Kagami.

"You're from Seirin, aren't you?" Takao asked, coming to stand a few paces behind Shintaro. "Haven't you heard anything from your seniors? Last year, the three kings utterly destroyed Seirin by tripling their score in each game."

Kagami's eyes widened in shock and Shintaro realized that the redhead was unaware of this particular fact. "Say what you want, but the difference in strength is absolute," Shintaro informed him. "Even if we meet in the championship game, history will only repeat itself."

"No," a soft voice said, startiling all three of them.

"You!" Kagami exclaimed, jumping into the air from surprise as Tetsuna suddenly appeared. "Stop coming out of nowhere like that!"

"Tsuna-chan," Shintaro greeted, ignoring Kagami's reaction to the nickname. His former teammate offered him a small wave, expression as neutral as ever. "Where were you earlier?"

"I went out for some fresh air," she told him, shrugging. "And about what you just said…You can only speculate based on the past. You won't know what will really happen until you play, Shin-chan."

"Tsuna-chan…" he trailed off, looking at his friend. She was the same as always, with the expressionless look on her face and the determination in each and every one of her words. "I really can't agree with you when it comes to matters pertaining basketball. There is plenty I would like to say to you, but telling you now would be meaningless. Come to the finals first."

She smiled when he said that, placing one hand on her hip. "I already said that my team would be there for sure, didn't I?"

"Wow, you've got a mouth on you," Takao said, amused, and Shintaro turned his attention to his teammate as the black-haired teen walked over to Tetsuna. He slung an arm around her shoulder and turned so that his back was to Shintaro.

"TAKAO!" Shintaro yelled, irritated by his teammate's antics. He wasn't the only one who was mad. Kagami, to his credit, looked like he wanted nothing more than to rip Takao off of Tetsuna, a sentiment that Shintaro shared. "Let go of her! Now!"

Takao did as he asked, holding both hands up in surrender. However, he continued to grin at Tetsuna. "You're the one from the other day, aren't you? We ran into you when Shin-chan forced me to bike while dragging him along in the cart." He pouted like a child as he said that. "You went to school with him, right? Don't let his words bother you. He's a tsundere, after all. He's actually really interested in you. He even went to see your first preliminary game."

"I knew that already…" Tetsuna said.

"What?" Kagami exclaimed, glaring at Shintaro. "What are you, a stalker?"

Shintaro adjusted his glasses again, sighing in irritation. "Is there a problem with me going to see my former teammate's match?"

Before Kagami could argue, Shutoku's captain, Otsubo Taisuke yelled for them to hurry up. "How long are you going to keep talking? Get ready!"

"Okay~," Takao said, dragging out the word as he and Shintaro walked towards their team. The green-haired sharpshooter turned and looked at his former teammate and her hotheaded partner once more.

"Kagami Taiga," he said in a cool, threatening voice that made Kagami tense up. "If you do anything indecent to Tsuna-chan, I, along with the rest of the Generation of Miracles, will see to it that you meet an early demise."

"Shin-chan!" Tetsuna scolded. He then turned to her, softening his gaze.

"Tsuna-chan," he began, ignoring Kagami as the redhead made protests to his threat. "I know your thoughts and views on basketball very well, though I do not understand why you persist with that thinking after everything that happened." He thought back to that day in third year when he had found her up to her knees in the river that ran behind their school, tears streaming down her face. Shintaro firmly believed that it was her unwavering belief in playing as a team that had caused her all that pain. If she didn't think like that, and had instead shared the Miracles mindset towards the game, then Aomine's words would not have hurt her so much. That day had been the first time that Shintaro had seen the strong-willed, level-headed girl cry, and it was a sight he never wanted to see again.

So he said to her in a determined voice, "I will show you just how naïve your thinking is."

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"What the hell is up with that guy?" Kagami grumbled as they headed up to the second floor to watch Shutoku's game.

"That's just the way that Shin-chan is," Tetsuna told him distractedly. She was still thinking about what Midorima had said to her earlier. However, Kagami's complaining made it hard for her to concentrate on her thoughts.

"And why was he holding a stuffed bear?" the redhead inquired, an annoyed look on his face.

"That's probably his lucky item for today."

"'Lucky item'?" Kagami echoed. "What the hell is that?"

"Shin-chan always listens to the Oha-Asa horoscope. He gets his lucky item for each day based off of what the horoscope tells him to get."

Kagami gaped at her. "You are friends with some really weird people, Kuroko."

"You are one of those people, Kagami-kun," she deadpanned.

"Hey! Don't lump me together with those weirdo!"

"Both of you, stop talking!" Riko scolded, whacking them both on the head. "The match is starting."

They fell silent at once, the atmosphere around them growing serious as they focused all their attention towards the game.

* * *

By the time that there were only four minutes left in the second quarter, there was already a thirty-point gap between Shutoku and Kinka. Shutoku had 38 points, while Kinka had only 8.

"They're already ahead by thirty points with four minutes left in the second quarter," Riko commented. "I'm not surprised."

Kagami scoffed.

"But they're not doing anything different from us, and they make it look so easy. I wonder why." Kawahara said.

"Because they don't make any mistakes," Hyuuga answered, drawing everyone's attention to him. "In basketball, the ball's always moving back and forth very quickly. Without exception, strong schools always have solid basics like passing, handling, and running. They make it look easy because their fundamentals are so solid. But those are only the fundamentals. Naturally, there's another reason. And that is that they have a true scorer."

As he said that, Shutoku's captain, Otsubo, caught a rebound and scored easily, even though two of his opponents attempted to block him. Both opponents fell onto the ground, and Otsubo hung victoriously from the hoop for a few moments before gracefully dropping down. He then proceeded to help his opponents stand back up.

"What an amazing dunk!" Kawahara remarked.

"Is he really a high schooler?" Furihata questioned.

"He's gotten even stronger," Riko said worriedly.

"We couldn't do anything about him last year," Hyuuga added.

"That's right," Riko said. "Otsubo on the inside and a normal outside was Shutoku's formation until last year, but this year…"

"They have Shin-chan this year," Tetsuna said softly. Riko nodded in confirmation and they all looked at the green-haired sharpshooter.

"He's five of five so far," Kagami observed. "Looks like Midorima's playing well."

"Is that so?" Tetsuna said, turning to Kagami.

"I don't know!" Kagami exclaimed, furrowing his brows. "Actually, shouldn't you be the one who knows?"

"I wonder," Tetsuna mused. "After all, I've never seen him miss." Kagami gasped, eyes widening in shock. She nodded her head towards the court, where Midorima was in possession of the ball at the three-point line. "Watch."

Midorima launched the ball into the air. It created a high arc, much to the disbelief of Tetsuna's teammates. But she had seen him make the same shot multiple times before, and watched without surprise as Midorima walked away before the ball even landed in the net.

 _Seriously, Shin-chan,_ Tetsuna thought, sighing deeply. _What would you do if your shot missed?_

But even as she thought it, she doubted that it would actually happen. His accuracy was so good that it bordered on terrifying. And as expected, the ball fell into the net a few moments later. Midorima didn't even bother looking back to confirm.

"What the…" Kagami sputtered, completely shocked.

"As long as Shin-chan doesn't lose his form, his makes one-hundred percent of his shots," Tetsuna told her team.

"Seriously?" Izuki said softly, still shocked from the shot.

"That's just not fair," Koganei remarked.

"He's heading back to defend before he even made the shot," Tsuchida said. "He's impossible to counter."

At those words, Tetsuna glanced at Kagami. As she had expected, the redhead looked excited. He was no doubt thinking about the best way to counter those shots. She just hoped that for all their sakes, her friend wasn't thinking of anything too outrageous. Midorima wasn't one to be taken lightly, after all.

"The time until he actually makes his shot is abnormally long," Riko commented. "It really gets you mentally."

The team watched in amazement as Midorima continued to make impossible shots, sinking each one. The game ended with Shutoku as the victor with 153 points, and Kinka with 21.

"Amazing!" the spectators murmured. "He's made every shot!"

"Is this the true strength of the Generation of Miracles' number one shooter?"

Cheers erupted amongst Shutoku's supporters, with the chant of 'Shutoku!' resounding throughout the large gymnasium.

Tetsuna studied her teammates' reactions. They all looked utterly shocked at what they had just saw. Riko appeared to be deep in thought, and Tetsuna knew that the brunette was already thinking about Shutoku's defense and offense.

As he headed back to the locker room with the rest of his team, Midorima glanced up to where Tetsuna was standing. As their eyes met, Tetsuna thought back to what Midorima had said to her earlier.

 _"I know your thoughts and views on basketball, though I do not understand why you persist with that thinking after everything that happened."_

That in turn reminded her of what Midorima had said regarding Daiki when they had run into each other the day before the preliminaries.

Back on the court, her green-haired friend nodded at her, offering a small smile. She returned the nod and smile and watched as he walked away, his words still nagging at her.

 _"I will show you just how naïve your thinking is."_

* * *

"Okay then" Hyuuga said, pushing open the gym doors. "Let's go ho—"

Riko cut him off, suddenly shoving him and everyone else in front of her forward as she yelled, "Don't!" She glared down at them and placed her hands firmly on her hips. "We still have one more game today. Are you guys idiots? Are you?"

"I was kidding," Hyuuga said nervously as he straightened up from the hunched over position that Riko's shove had put him in. He rubbed the back of his head as he offered his coach a weak grin. "The mood just seemed really gloomy."

"Everyone checked the tournament bracket," Izuki added.

Kagami, however, was caught by surprise by this fact. "Huh?" he said with a blank look on his face. "We have another game? Seriously?"

"Kagami-kun…" Tetsuna muttered, exasperated, as the rest of her team also reacted in disbelief at Kagami's lack of knowledge.

"You really are stupid, Bakagami!" Riko yelled, really angry now. She held up the tournament bracket and shoved it in the redhead's face. "Check the bracket properly! We play two games on the day of our fourth game as well as the last day! Our fifth game starts at 5PM."

Kagami took the bracket from Riko and looked at it closely.

"But two games in one day is too much," Koganei complained.

"Yeah," Izuki moaned in agreement. "Even if we get a break, we're still tired."

"The finals and semifinals are on the same day?" Kagami noticed at last. "Doesn't that mean we'll be playing a game before we play Shutoku?" He peered closer at the bracket and his eyebrows shot up in surprise. Tetsuna leaned in to look at the bracket he was holding, curious as to what caused his reaction. "Coach, the three kings are Shutoku and…"

"That's right," Riko answered him. "Seiho and Senshinkan."

Kagami turned the paper around and showed it to Riko. "Isn't this…"

Riko nodded. "On the last day, our semifinals opponent will most likely be Seiho. And we'll play Shutoku in the finals. We'll be playing against two kings in a row."

Everyone reacted to surprise at that statement. Tetsuna glanced over at Kagami, and counted down from three.

 _Three, two, one, and…_

Kagami grinned excitedly, right on time as Tetsuna had predicted. "Two games in a day, and both our opponents are strong. I couldn't ask for more."

"No, but this is too much," Furihata protested.

"Who are you trying to impress?" Kawahara demanded, horrified. He then looked to Tetsuna for confirmation. "Right, Kuroko?"

"Sorry," she replied, tapping her chin with her finger. "I'm actually a little excited as well."

"What?" Furihata said in disbelief. "Did you get Kagami germs?"

"What do you mean, 'Kagami germs'?" the redhead in question demanded, highly offended.

"I hope not," Tetsuna mused, much to Kagami's irritation.

"The way you denied that pisses me off."

She shrugged at that, further annoying her hotheaded friend, but continued on seriously, "But don't difficult situations like this light a fire in you?"

Kagami grinned at the question. "All right!" he bellowed. "I'm on fire! I'm going to go practice!"

"Don't do that!" Riko protested, whacking him on the head. "Seriously, you unbelievable basketball idiot. You idiot, Bakagami!"

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

The excitement of facing two strong opponents carried over onto the next day, and Taiga went through the day with high spirits. During the lunch break, he devoured his sandwiches at a faster rate than usual, something that the teal-haired girl who sat behind him noticed.

"You're eating more than usual," she commented as he sipped out of his milk carton.

"I'm building up my strength for our upcoming games!" he declared with a broad grin. Then he frowned a little as he saw Tetsuna's meal which comprised only of two triangular sandwiches and a juice carton. "I'm surprised that's enough food for you. We played two games yesterday. I'm so hungry." He took a big bite out of his sandwich as he spoke. "And sore," he added, rolling out his shoulders. "How are you so fine?"

True enough, the teal-haired girl looked as she normally did, not looking tired in the least. "I guess I'm just used to it," she replied, shrugging. "We played back-to-back games like this all the time back at Teiko."

"Sounds harsh," Taiga replied. "But also exciting."

Tetsuna let out a long sigh. "Somehow I knew you would say that."

"Hey!" he protested. Before he could say anything else, a certain second-year coach stuck her head inside their classroom.

"Kagami-kun, Tetsuna-chan!" They both glanced over at her and saw that she was carrying two huge cardboard boxes. "Good timing. Come with me for a bit."

The moment that he and Tetsuna stepped out of their classroom, Riko thrust the two boxes at him with a cheerful smile.

"Carry these and come with me."

Tetsuna immediately complied, and Taiga followed after grumbling for a few seconds. His arms ached as he walked, still sore from yesterday's games. The boxes were extremely heavy as well, making the job all the more difficult.

"What are you, an ogre?" he questioned, shooting a glare at his coach. "Why do I have to carry them alone? Shouldn't you make Kuroko carry one as well?"

Tetsuna blinked up at him in reply, saying nothing, though there was an amused glimmer in her eye.

"Hey," Riko said, still smiling cheerfully. "You want to make a maiden carry those boxes? I'm leaving that job up to you, boy."

"Don't call me 'boy'," Taiga grumbled. "And I don't see a maiden anywhere."

Tetsuna sent him a calculating look. "Kagami-kun, you shouldn't say such things in the presence of a maiden," she reprimanded. "You'll get hurt."

As if spurred on by those words, Riko struck out and punched him.

"Anyways, what is this?" Taiga asked, wincing in pain. He peered into the box and saw numerous DVD's, all labeled with school names.

"They're DVD's of this year's and last year's games from the club room," Riko informed him. "They're for scouting. The club room is so small, so we're moving this elsewhere to watch the matches. After all, we're going to be playing two games in a row against the kings in the semifinals. There's no such thing as over preparing."

* * *

Taiga leaned against the back of the seat, still thinking about the DVD of Seiho that he and Tetsuna had watched earlier. He was at Maji's now, and had gotten his usual enormous pile of burgers. He was biting into the first one, mind still on his upcoming opponents when a familiar voice broke through his thoughts.

"Kagami-kun?"

He looked up to see Tetsuna standing next to his table, holding one of those vanilla shakes that she loved so much.

"Yo," he said, once he recovered from the usual shock he experienced when she appeared out of nowhere. "Looks like I got here before you today." He smiled warmly as he thought back on all the times that he had sat down at a table at Maji's only to find that Tetsuna was already there.

"Looks like," she replied, sitting down across from him.

They sat in amiable silence for a while, during which Taiga devoured a quarter of his burgers.

"About Seiho," he said, opening up another burger. "You said that you played one of their guys before?"

"Yes, their number 10. Tsugawa Tomoki. We were just getting started at the time, but he managed to stop Ryou-chan."

"Seriously?" Taiga exclaimed, nearly choking on his food. "That baldy stopped Kise?"

Tetsuna nodded, swirling her vanilla shake. "Like I said, we were just getting started at the time, but he was still incredibly strong. And due to a few mishaps, all of my teammates wanted to kill him by the end of the match."

Taiga frowned. "What did he do? Hit on you?"

She blinked at him, expression as blank as ever. He had meant it as a joke, so he was surprised when she said, "Yes. Something to that extent."

Taiga gulped at that admission. He remembered Midorima saying that he and the other Miracles would kill him if he did anything 'indecent' to Tetsuna. So far, he had only met Kise and Midorima, and he could tell that they were protective of their former teammate. Though he had yet to meet the other three, Tetsuna had told him before that she was childhood friends with Akashi, Teiko's captain. He would likely be protective of her as well. Taiga bit his lip and resolved to be _very, very_ careful about how he behaved around Tetsuna when the Miracles were in the proximity.

"He's not the only one worrying me," Tetsuna went on, drawing Taiga's attention back to their conversation. "As a matter of fact, their whole team is kind of odd."

"I noticed that too," Taiga agreed, thinking back to the DVD. Throughout the entirety of the game, he had noticed that their movements were weird, as well as the rhythm he felt from watching them. He said as much to Tetsuna.

"I've heard from a friend of mine that they hold special practices at Seiho," she informed him. "I'm not sure about the particulars, but whatever they do gives their team an incredibly strong defense. The best in Tokyo, if I've heard correctly."

Taiga finished another burger and cracked his knuckles. "Sounds interesting," he said, grinning. "Well, let's defeat Seiho, then continue on to defeat Shutoku."

Tetsuna nodded, a bit distracted at the mention of her former teammate's school. Taiga took note of this reaction.

"Does it trouble you, going up against your former teammates?" he asked. "I mean, I know you said you wanted to beat them to prove your style of basketball, but does it bother you at all to be playing against them instead of with?"

She sighed, drinking from her shake before answering. "It's like you said. I want to prove my style of basketball to them. The only way I can do that is if I use it against them and show them how I play. Besides," she said solemnly, averting her gaze and dropping her voice. "We stopped playing _with_ each other a long time ago."

"Kuroko…"

She met his worried stare and shook her head as if to clear it. "But now I'm going to beat them and bring us together again," she finished with a small smile.

"You really are amazing," Taiga commented after a while.

"Where did that come from?" she asked, her expression returned to neutral. He could, however, denote a hint of surprise on her voice.

Instead of answering her, Taiga just grinned.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**


	8. And so It Begins

**Note: I was unhappy with chapter one, so I rewrote it. It's now kind of a prologue to the story. Go check it out!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke.**

* * *

"I'm all fired up!" Kagami declared as they walked from the changing room to the gymnasium on the day of their match against Seiho. Though his words were enthusiastic, his eyes were still bloodshot, just like they were every time before a big game. Tetsuna nodded silently beside him, long since used to her teammate's loud declarations.

They proceeded forward into the gym and began their warmups. As her teammates dribbled and threw shots, Tetsuna looked around the gym. There were around four other teams present. Nearby to Seirin's team was Shutoku, and Seiho was at the court across from theirs. Her attention was drawn back to her own team as Kagami ran up to the basket and made one of his incredible dunks, dangling from the rim of the net before landing back on the ground. He then shot a glare over to where Midorima was standing, and the green-haired sharpshooter returned the look with one of his own.

 _And just what are the two of you doing?_ Tetsuna wondered, amused.

Their glaring contest was cut short, however, when Hyuuga came over and forcefully twisted Kagami's neck to make him look away from Midorima.

"You're looking the wrong way, idiot," the bespectacled captain said. Kagami turned his glare on Hyuuga and rubbed his neck. "No matter how much you stare, if we lose this next game, you'll look like an idiot."

"I was just looking at him," Kagami shot back. He then turned to face the court where Seiho was warming up. "I'm completely focused on our next game."

Tetsuna watched their opponents as well, taking note of their every move. Like Kagami had said yesterday, there was something strange to their movements, something that made their rhythm feel off.

"Seiho seems more normal than I expected," Furihata commented, also observing the other team. "They don't have any really big guys."

"I suppose they are a bit small for a national team," Riko agreed. "Their biggest player is their captain, Iwamura-kun."

"Then is he about as tall as Mitobe-senpai?" Fukuda questioned, looking at Seiho's captain. "He's pretty wide."

"He's so thick!" Furihata interjected. "He seems really powerful!"

"Then there's their playmaker, Kasuga," she said, nodding towards a tall blonde. "Those two third years are the core of their team."

Kagami scoffed, seemingly unimpressed, and turned away to continue warming up. However, he was stopped by Tsugawa, who approached their team with a smile.

"You're Kagami, aren't you? Your hair's so red. Scary!"

Tetsuna watched Kagami's reaction carefully. The redhead narrowed his eyes at Tsugawa, irritation inching into his expression. Tsugawa was oblivious to this as he turned back to his own team, waving.

"Captain," he called out cheerily. "This is the guy, right? Seirin's weak, but they have one strong guy!"

Everyone of Seirin's team was instantly irritated by this statement. Kagami looked like he would very much like to punch the chipper bald basketball player. Tetsuna stopped him before he could though, placing a hand firmly on his arm.

"Kagami-kun," she said flatly. "Please think about your actions very carefully before you do something rash."

"Heh? I wasn't going to do anything," he lied unconvincingly. He lowered his arm, though he continued to glare at Tsugawa. Until that moment, Tetsuna had gone by unnoticed by him, even though she was standing right next to Kagami. However, speaking to Kagami had alerted Tsugawa to her presence. He blinked at her a few times before recognition bloomed across his face.

"Hey, I remember you!" he said cheerfully. Tetsuna recalled that the bald player seemed to say everything in a chipper tone. "You used to be on Teiko's team!"

The last statement was said in a loud voice that echoed throughout the gymnasium. Everyone heard, and warm ups stalled as the teams looked towards Tetsuna. Or rather, the area where she was standing.

"Did he say Teiko?" people were murmuring. " _That_ Teiko?"

"But who is he talking about? The redhead?"

"Wah! Where did that girl come from? She appeared out of nowhere!"

But after they noticed that she was there, the murmuring only got louder and more frantic until the entire gymnasium was abuzz with talk. Everyone was staring at her, and Tetsuna began to grow uncomfortable at all the attention.

Suddenly, Kagami released a loud roar and took off running towards the basket. He leaped up in the air and dunked a basketball through the hoop, slamming it so hard that the basketball bounced up around five feet after hitting the ground. Right after he made his basket, another basketball went it in a fluid motion. Tetsuna turned to see, Midorima, still standing in his team's court. He had made another one of his impossible shots, but this time it hadn't been for the sake of showing off.

The gymnasium hushed at once and all the attention that had been on her a moment before suddenly shifted over to Kagami and Midorima.

"Whoa, did you see that?"

"Amazing!"

As people raved about what just happened, Midorima walked over to Tetsuna, sending a deadly glare towards Tsugawa.

"Sorry about that," the bald player said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. "I didn't mean for that to happen."

"Then be more careful of your words in the future," Midorima said irritably.

Tsugawa's cheerful attitude didn't change as Midorima and Kagami glared at him. Instead, he turned boldly to Tetsuna.

"It's good to see you again, Kuroko-san! I'm so excited to be playing you today. I really respected you back in middle school! You're as cute as ever, though your hair is a lot longer now. It looks so pretty!"

Both Midorima and Kagami looked like they'd like nothing more than to punch the living daylights out of Tsugawa. But before they could take action, Seiho's captain, Iwamura, walked over and punched Tsugawa for them.

"Quit messing around, you idiot," he commanded. He then placed his hand on Tsugawa's head and forced the bald player into a bow. "Sorry about that. This guy's socially inept, so he just says what he's thinking."

"You don't need to apologize," Hyuuga said, approaching them looking somewhat annoyed. Midorima looked like he'd like to protest that statement, but Tetsuna nudged him with her elbow, silencing him. "We're going to win," Hyuuga continued. "If you look down on us like you did last year, you'll end up in tears."

"That won't happen," Iwamura replied immediately. "Besides, we weren't looking down on you. You were just weak. That's all."

He turned and gripped Tsugawa by his shirt, guiding his teammate away from Seirin and Midorima.

"That guy…" Kagami growled, hand clenched into a fist.

Midorima blinked slowly, giving Kagami an odd look, and Tetsuna couldn't quite decipher the look that crossed his face just then. It was there and gone too quickly for her to make anything out of it. Her friend adjusted his glasses with his bandaged fingers and turned to Kagami.

"Keep an eye on that guy and make sure he stays away from Tetsuna," he commanded.

Though Kagami looked pissed at being ordered around by Midorima, he still agreed, giving him a stiff nod.

"I can take care of myself, you know?" Tetsuna protested.

"I know that very well," Midorima said honestly, glaring at Tsugawa's retreating back. "But it never hurts to take extra precautions. Especially when it comes to guys like that."

* * *

As Seirin filed out of the locker room to head to the gymnasium, Tetsuna followed behind slowly, distracted by what Hyuuga said earlier during their pre-game meeting. She paused outside the door and looked up towards the skylights that made up the ceiling. It was nice and sunny outside, without a single cloud in the sky. It was her favorite sort of weather, yet she felt weighed down from her captain's words.

Kagami noticed that she had fallen behind and twisted his neck to look at her. "Is something wrong?"

She remained silent for a few moments, stringing together the words she wanted to say, the question she wanted to ask. "Kagami-kun," she began slowly. "Have you ever hated basketball?"

"What?" he said, turning his body fully towards her, taken aback by the question. "No, I haven't."

 _Ah, of course not,_ she thought to herself, thinking of how Kagami was always excited when basketball was brought up, especially if there was a strong opponent involved. He reminded her so much of Daiki—too much, perhaps. Her heart ached as she thought about how Daiki used to be, beautiful dark-blue eyes lighting up whenever they had a match.

"I have," she said haltingly. "I believe my reason is different that our seniors, but I understand the feeling. They're so cheerful now, but hating something that you love is extremely painful."

 _Perhaps that is why I could never quite bring herself to hate Daiki_ , she thought, suddenly reminded of Midorima's question from that one time: _"After everything that has happened, why do you still care so deeply about him?"_

She had tried, at one point, to get mad at him, to hate him for all that he said to her. But that had unexpectedly hurt far worse than loving him and not being able to be with him. So she had settled for the latter, though it still brought her pain. She liked to believe that she was slowly getting better now as she had a new team who not only accepted her style but agreed with it as well. However, upon hearing Hyuuga talk about hating basketball, all those unpleasant memories had resurfaced, instilling doubt in her.

"When I spoke with Shin-chan, I told him that the past and future are different, but they're not completely separate," she said after a long pause. "I think this game is important for our seniors to get over the past. So, now that I think about it, I really want to win this game."

Kagami looked at her for a long while before replying. "I've never hated basketball before, so I can't understand everything you're saying, but I definitely agree with that last part!"

He grinned at her, bright and cocky, and she returned it with a small smile of her own.

"Let's go win this game."

* * *

Tetsuna looked over at her partner, concerned. He had just gotten another foul and they were only four minutes into the game. Seiho already had a score of twelve, while Seirin hadn't scored even once.

"Kagami-kun, you already have two fouls," she informed him, much to the redhead's irritation. "Get five and you're out."

"I know that," he grumbled. "Somehow their movements are impossible to play against."

Tetsuna nodded in agreement, haven thought the same thing. They had noticed the weird movements when the watched the DVD as well, but seeing them in person was a completely different experience. If she could just have a little more time to watch them, she might be able to come up with a way to stop them. And somehow, their movements reminded her of something…

She didn't have much time to dwell on that as the game resumed. She got possession of the ball, but when she glanced around the court, she saw that all of her teammates were covered by a Seiho player, leaving her no one that she could pass to. There was a brief moment when Kasuga, the player covering Izuki, was far enough aside for her to attempt a pass, so she did. However, the moment the ball entered the blonde's field of view, he moved forward immediately blocking the pass. Tetsuna's eyes widened, though not at the fact that her pass was blocked.

Seiho's movements…She recognized them now.

And as Riko called a time-out and their eyes met across the court, she realized that her coach had caught on as well.

* * *

"Seiho uses old martial arts techniques," Riko informed her team, confirming Tetsuna's suspicions.

Kagami, ever the idiot when it came to matters unrelated to basketball, furrowed his brows in confusion. "Old martial arts? Like this?" He made a weird noise and chopped his hand through the air.

"That's not old martial arts," Riko said, exasperated. "To be precise, they are incorporating movements from old martial arts. You've noticed as well, right Tetsuna-chan?"

Tetsuna nodded as her team turned their attention towards her. "It appears that they're using a technique called 'namba running,'" she informed them. "Usually, you move your legs and arms in opposite directions when you run, right? But in namba running, your arms and legs move together, which then allows you to avoid twisting your body. This reduces the strain that's put on your body and lets you expend less energy."

"How do you know so much about this?" Kagami asked, amazed.

"Sei-chan—Our captain an Teiko," she clarified when her team gave her blank looks. "He learned old martial arts when we were children, and I went with accompanied him to his lessons." She remembered the first time she had seen namba running, noting the odd movements but appreciating the effects of the technique. _But I've never thought about incorporating these moves into basketball._

"Is there a way to counter it?" Kagami asked.

"I'm not too sure, but there might be a way," Tetsuna mused. "In the end, it all comes down to speed. Using namba running slows them down, especially when they're in possession of the ball. Thus, we take advantage thus and make sure to move faster than them. It may be difficult, but it's not infallible, and neither is Seiho."

"That's right," Riko agreed. "After all, they're high schoolers, just like you. They'll fall for fakes, and they'll lose their balance if you catch them off guard. They're playing the same basketball that you are. If you play like you always do, it'll work."

"All right!" Kagami said, getting to his feet as the whistle sounded, signaling the end of their time-out. "Let's continue on with the game!"

Back on the court, Tetsuna watched as Kagami faced off against Tsugawa, a grin on the redhead's face. He got around the bald player's defense and took off at a faster pace than usual, just as Tetsuna had instructed him to. As she had expected, Seiho's players were unable to catch up to Kagami as he ran up to the basket and slammed it in. As he landed, Kagami turned and grinned his usual grin at her.

"We'll definitely win this game!"

* * *

"Seirin, member change!" the referee announced at the end of the second quarter.

Kagami, who now had four fouls, finally relented to being subbed out. He grumbled about it, but headed over to the bench reluctantly, Tetsuna following close behind. She was being subbed out as well, and Koganei and Tsuchida would be replacing them.

"Kagami-kun," Tetsuna said to her still-glowering partner. "You can trust our seniors, you know."

"I know, I know. I just want to play," he muttered.

Tetsuna released a long breath, the corner of her mouth twitching up in amusement. "Well, now that we're both benched, help me look for Seiho's tells." It was something that she and Satsuki had often done during games when Tetsuna was benched. Whenever the two girls worked together, they always managed to get very specific details on their opponents. Tetsuna smiled fondly at the memory of working together with her pink-haired friend. They made quite a formidable team, the two of them. And when their red-haired captain was thrown into the mix…Well, the three of them created some of the best plays that Teiko had ever seen.

"Tells?" Kagami questioned, raising a brow in confusion.

"Something that will help us to predict their moves," she replied. "They're using well-practiced moves, after all. That means there should be some sort of pattern."

Kagami nodded in agreement, and both focused intently on the game, carefully observing their opponents' every move.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Momoi Satsuki sat in Touou's courtyard after school ended for the day. She looked again at the text her best friend had sent her half an hour ago.

 _From: Tetsu-chan_

 _We're going to play against Seiho now. If we win, then we'll be up against Shin-chan's school._

 _I'll try my hardest to follow through with my plan._

Satsuki sighed as she read the text for the umpteenth time. She remembered when Tetsuna had first told her about this plan a while ago.

 _"I have a plan,"_ Tetsuna had said. _"A plan to fix everything."_

 _"I'm listening,"_ Satsuki had replied, excited.

She had then listened as Tetsuna spoke about beating the boys with her basketball, showing them that they could enjoy playing the sport and rely on teammates instead of just themselves. Tetsuna had explained that doing so might bring things back to the way things used to be.

 _"I just want them to remember,"_ Tetsuna had said. _"I want them to remember why they started playing basketball in the first place—because they love it. And…I want to see him smile while playing basketball again."_

Satsuki had smiled warmly when Tetsuna told her that, and she smiled again now, recalling her best friend's words. She knew Tetsuna's feelings towards Daiki, and she knew Daiki's feelings for Tetsuna. However, neither of her two friends were aware of the feelings of the other. Everything had gotten out of hand before those feelings had been revealed. But if this plan worked, maybe everything else would fall into place.

The plan had seemed far-fetched at the time, and Tetsuna had said as much. Satsuki had agreed, silently noting the many ways that the plan could go wrong, but she didn't care. It was a plan, which was better than nothing. It gave them the ability to hope that things might get better and return to the way they used to be. And if it worked…

Satsuki thought of Tetsuna and the five boys, playing together as a team, playing in a good and honest way like they did during their first two years at Teiko. Their camaraderie was unlike any other and she missed seeing and being a part of it. She wanted desperately for them to go back to playing like that, and she knew that Tetsuna agreed.

"Momoi-san!" a voice called out.

Satsuki looked up to see Sakurai running towards her. "What's the matter, Sakurai-kun?"

"Um, sorry to bother you," he replied, as apologetic as ever. "Imayoshi-kun is looking for Aomine-kun. I was wondering if you've seen him?"

Satsuki sighed. It seemed that her friend was ditching practice. Again.

"I'll go look for him," she told Sakurai as she stood up.

"Thanks," he replied. "Sorry about this."

Satsuki gave him a kind smile and headed up towards the roof, where Daiki was sure to be.

* * *

"Seriously, Aomine-kun," she admonished when she found him spread out on his back laying on the roof. "Just how long do you plan on sleeping?"

"Go away, Satsuki," he mumbled drowsily.

"Imayoshi-kun needs to speak with you," she told him. "You'd better go before you irritate him further."

"Whatever," Daiki said, shrugging. "I'll go talk to him when I feel like it."

"Aomine-kun!" She planted her hands firmly on her waist and glared down at him, trying her best to look intimidating.

He blinked up at her in response. "Hey, Satsuki, if you stand like that, I can see your—"

She cut him off with a short yelp and tugged on her skirt. Seeing that he wasn't going to be getting up anytime soon, Satsuki sat down next to him, sighing. "Seriously, Aomine-kun. Go talk to Imayoshi-kun already."

Daiki muttered something under his breath in reply. "Satsuki…" he began hesitantly a while later. "Seirin…They have a game today, right?"

"Yes," she replied, somehow having anticipated that he would be asking that sooner or later. "Against Seiho."

She almost told him that Tsugawa Tomoki, the bald player they had played against in middle school who had continuously hit on Tetsuna, would be playing on Seiho's team. But mentioning this little fact to Daiki would result in him immediately rushing off to the game to make sure that nothing bad happened to the teal-haired girl whom he loved. If the situation were any different, Satsuki would've loved if that happened because it would mean that he and Tetsuna might finally get a chance to talk things out and make up. But with the situation as it was, Satsuki did not want Daiki to see a certain redhead who would no doubt be present around Tetsuna, playing with her the way that Daiki used to.

Daiki didn't know about Kagami yet, and even though Satsuki had told Tetsuna that she couldn't keep it from him forever, she felt somewhat inclined to do just that. Daiki wouldn't take the news well, and Satsuki had no way of predicting what he would do once he found out.

No, she wouldn't tell Daiki just yet. She would wait until she could think up a way to reveal it to him that wouldn't result in him reacting with anger and hurt. For now, she would have to keep it from her childhood friend a little longer.

"I see."

"But even though Seiho is one of the three kings, I still think that Tetsu-chan is going to win!" she said cheerily, in an attempt to fill the awkward silence that stretched between them.

"Of course," Daiki scoffed, still frowning. "There's no way that Tetsu would lose to a team like that."

Satsuki nodded in agreement. Seiho was a strong team and their moves were unique, but those were all things that could be analyzed at length. Both Tetsuna and Satsuki were wildly talented at such analysis, as was Akashi. Between the three of them, they could gather all of the information on their opponents' formations and styles and create a game plan that would allow them to win. She thought wistfully of those days where she and Tetsuna would pore over statistics on their opponents, watching matches and reading files. They'd put together large amounts of information and hand it over to Akashi, who, with the help of Tetsuna, would in turn develop a play that utilized all of their strengths. But they had all stopped doing that in their third year when the five boys had decided that they wouldn't rely on anyone but themselves, leaving the two girls behind.

For a game like this one against Seiho, Tetsuna's talents as a play analyzer and planner would come in handy.

"After she wins, she'll be going against Shutoku, right?" Daiki asked. Though he attempted to sound nonchalant and like he didn't care at all how Tetsuna's games went, Satsuki knew him well enough to tell that he was extremely curious about that matter.

"Yep," she replied with a knowing smile. "She'll be playing against Midorin soon. Who do you think will win that one?"

"Midorima's tough, but so is Tetsu. That girl…With that determination of hers, she could do anything that she puts her mind up to." Daiki was talking in a wistful tone now, too, reminiscing upon the earlier days just as Satsuki had just been doing. There was the smallest of smiles on his face, and while Satsuki was happy to see that, she couldn't help but wonder about the past.

 _It's obvious that you still care deeply about her, so why can't the two of you just make up already? What happened in third year that I don't know?_

"It looks like it's going to rain soon," she said, watching as the clouds darkened in color. "Let's head inside. And you still need to go talk to Imayoshi-kun."

"Yeah, yeah," Daiki grumbled, sitting up. "I'll go talk to him. You happy now?"

Satsuki beamed.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Taiga grinned from Seirin's bench as he watched his team slip past Seiho's defenses. They easily shook off the players guarding them, and Tetsuna was there to pass them the ball, moving faster than his eyes could keep track of. Meanwhile, Seiho looked both surprised and irritated that their moves had been seen through.

On the court, one of Seiho's players began to make a pass, only for Hyuuga to swoop in and steal the ball. Seirin's captain dribbled the ball down the court, running pass defenders. He threw the ball aside and Tetsuna appeared out of nowhere and redirected it towards Izuki, who jumped up and tossed the ball into the net. Seiho looked even more shocked and perturbed now that Seirin could see and get past all of their moves.

Taiga thought back to what Tetsuna had told them earlier.

 _"I think I figured it out," Tetsuna had said towards the beginning of the final quarter. "One of Seiho's tells."_

 _"You did?" Taiga exclaimed, turning to her in surprise. He had been watching the opposing team just as long as she had, but had yet to find something that would help predict their movements. If anything, the other team's odd moves made it all the more difficult for Taiga to keep track of what they were even trying to do._

 _But Tetsuna, however, seemed to have found something. Riko and the rest of Seirin's team who were benched all turned to her as she explained. "Usually when running, you step and shift your body in your intended path. However, I noticed that all of them point their toes in the direction they want to go in. If we pay attention to that, then we'll be able to predict their next moves. Also, I have a plan…"_

Taiga continued to watch the match intently, staring as Mitobe made a shot even while being guarded by one of Seiho's players. "This is the will of my seniors…" he mused.

His eyes widened a little as he turned his attention to his teal-haired teammate, who was slipping in between the other players and passing the ball at lightning speed, not even giving Seiho enough time to react. She moved through the court just as quickly as her passes did, and it was extremely difficult to keep track of her. Her passes were always received with ease, and shots were made easily, allowing Seirin to catch up.

He watched as Tetsuna nonverbally communicated with her teammates, tilting her head in certain directions and sending subtle looks in others, relating to them where she needed them to be for her plan to work. She silently directed Izuki towards one of Seiho's players who was in possession of the ball and about to shoot with a mere glance at said player, and Izuki ran over, moving just as Tetsuna had told him to earlier, successfully blocking the shot.

 _Now that I think about it,_ Taiga thought as Tetsuna made another one of those incredible passes, _this is the first time I've watched her play from the bench._

"Amazing," he murmured. He had said that to her before, but that had been more about her bright spirit and unrelenting determination than her basketball prowess. Seeing her play was amazing on a whole other level. Not to mention her ability to design plays like this one, helping her teammates to infiltrate Seiho's defense without even having to say a word to them on the court.

"What? You just noticed now? Tetsuna-chan has always been like this," Riko said teasingly.

The game continued, and with thirty seconds left on the clock, Seirin had 70 points and was one point ahead of Seiho. However, Seiho quickly made a comeback as their captain ran up to the net, jumped, and dunked the ball all before Seirin could stop him.

"Don't underestimate a king!" he declared. "You need ten more years of experience to beat us!"

"That guy," Taiga muttered, glaring at the captain. Riko looked annoyed as well.

Seiho then proceeded to surround Seirin with an all court man-to-man formation. Taiga watched intently as his teammates passed the ball around, trying to get around Seiho's defense. The other team seemed to have strengthened their defense as it was now harder to get past. Despite that, Tetsuna continued on with her silent commands, getting her teammates to shake off their guards for long enough to attempt a pass.

The ball then went in Tetsuna's direction and Taiga grinned, expecting her to make her usual lightning-fast pass. However, Tsugawa caught up with her before she got the chance, much to everyone's surprise.

"How?" Taiga asked, befuddled. No one had been able to track her down like that before.

"He must have calculated backwards from the pass's target," Riko murmured in response.

Then Tetsuna did something that Taiga never would've expected her to do. Instead of passing, she took the ball in one hand and dribbled. Before Tsugawa could react to this sudden change, Tetsuna ducked down low and ran under the bald player's outstretched arms. She pivoted her body as she did, throwing the ball in Hyuuga's direction.

Their bespectacled captain looked about as surprised as Taiga felt, but did not hesitate to take the shot from the three-point line. They all watched in amazement as the ball went in right as the buzzer sounded, bringing Seirin's score up to 73 points and granting them victory over Seiho.

Taiga, Riko, and everyone else who was benched jumped up in excitement, cheering loudly at their victory. Then, they all ran towards Tetsuna and Hyuuga, embracing the two who had brought them their winning shot.

"What was that?" Riko asked Tetsuna, still wide-eyed. "That duck, twist, and pass. Since when could you do something like that?"

"Well, I saw that Tsugawa-kun was going to block my pass, and I couldn't easily get around him, so I just ducked down and passed the ball to Hyuuga from there," Tetsuna said plainly. "It's one of the moves I learned while following Sei-chan to his lessons. I don't know many moves, and using them in basketball has certainly never occurred to me before, but I saw how successful Seiho was when they implemented them. I thought that I might be able to use it successfully as well, so I did."

"Kuroko, you…" Taiga said with a broad smile. The rest of the team also grinned, embracing the young girl who seemed a bit baffled by their openly displayed affections. Taiga was just glad that Midorima wasn't watching as he was still preoccupied with his own match. Somehow, he doubted that the green-haired sharpshooter would've been alright with all the hugs that Tetsuna was receiving.

Their celebrations were cut short, however, by Tsugawa, who was extremely displeased by his team's loss.

"Why?" he demanded, glaring angrily at Taiga and his teammates. "Seirin just formed last year! We practice way more than them! They didn't stand a chance last year! No matter how you look at it, we're stronger!"

"Enough, Tsugawa," Iwamura said, placing a hand on his junior's shoulder as he walked over. He ignored Tsugawa's protests as he looked over Seirin's team. "The strong don't win. The winners are the strong ones. They were stronger. That's all."

Tsugawa trembled with fury at Iwamura's words, clenching his hands into fists and gritting his jaw. He then turned to Tetsuna, all of that cheeriness from earlier gone. Instead, he glared at her, seemingly angrier at her than the rest.

"Kuroko," Tsugawa gritted out, and Taiga immediately noticed the omission of the honorific. "I meant what I said earlier about respecting you. However…WHY ARE YOU AT A WEAK NO-NAME SCHOOL LIKE SEIRIN?" he hollered, pointing an accusatory finger at Tetsuna. The girl in question let out a weary sigh, looking as if she was tired of hearing that question over and over. "WITH YOUR SKILL YOU COULD'VE GONE ANYWHERE! YOU DESIGNED ALL THE PLAYS THAT THE GENERATION OF MIRACLES USED AFTER ALL!"

Taiga had three thoughts right then.

This first was had with a bit of wry amusement: _Ah, he snapped._

The second was with anger at the bald player: _How dare he insult Seirin like that? Especially after we just_ _beat his team!_

And the third was with complete shock at his teal-haired teammate, so shocking that he even spoke it aloud, looking at Tetsuna as if she'd grown a second half.

"Designed all of their plays…Kuroko, is that true?"

She stared up at him and blinked, as if it wasn't a big deal at all. He supposed that to her, such a thing wouldn't be. "Well kind of," she said in her usual neutral tone. "I mean, I designed the plays with the help of Sei-chan and Tsuki-chan. The three of us together created all the plays. It's not a big deal so I didn't say anything."

"It is a big deal!" Taiga declared.

"A very big deal!" Riko added. "In the future, please mention these things ahead of time, Tetsuna-chan!"

"Sorry," she said as the rest of her team continued to look at her in bafflement.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"73-71, Seirin!" the referee announced as both teams bowed to each other.

Tetsuna's teammates had finally calmed down from the shock of finding out about her involvement in creating Teiko's plays. She still couldn't understand, however, why they were so surprised about that fact. She was just doing her part to help the team, as her misdirection and passes wouldn't last an entire game. It had been Akashi who had asked for her help in the plays, knowing that she was a quick thinker and very meticulous when it came to small details. She had designed several plays on her own, though most of the time she planned them out with Akashi and Satsuki. But after everyone began to change, those plays were no longer necessary as they had begun to win by sheer force alone, obliterating their opponents without even giving them a chance to fight back.

Tsugawa approached her after the line-up. He seemed to have calmed down as well, for he had that cheerful smile back on his face, though it was a bit sadder now than it had been before. "It was great playing against you, Kuroko-san. You really are an interesting opponent. But next time, I'll be the victor." He then ran off towards the rest of his team, waving a quick goodbye to her as he left.

Tetsuna glanced at Kagami as they headed back towards their bench to gather their belongings. The redhead was still giving her an odd look, as if reassessing his view on her as one of the Miracles. "So," he began, one of the corners of his lips tugging up into a half-smirk. "Playmaker, huh?"

"Like I said," she said, sighing, "I didn't do it alone. It's not as impressive as you're making it out to be."

"Even so, it's still pretty impressive," Kagami told her. "I mean, we were having a lot of trouble getting past them until you found out their weaknesses and instructed us on how to get through their defenses."

She shrugged. "I can't do much on court besides passing, so I make up for that by analyzing and planning out plays when I'm off the court. It's compensation, I suppose."

"But your passes are still amazing, you know. You're the only one I know who can make passes like that. Don't write yourself off too easily."

Before she could respond to that, the buzzer on the nearby court went off, announce the end of the Shutoko vs. Ginbo match. Shutoku was the victor with 113 points, while Ginbo had lost with only 38.

Midorima walked over in their direction, Takao following close behind while still giving the three of them some space. After sharing a brief glaring contest with Kagami, much to Tetsuna's exasperation, he turned to her and smiled.

"I'll see you in the finals then, Tsuna-chan."

"Yes," she replied, also smiling. "You will."

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Meanwhile, in another part of Tokyo, a certain pink-haired manager of Touou's basketball team was reading a text message she just received from her best friend.

 _From: Tetsu-chan_

 _We defeated Seiho 73-71. We'll be facing Shin-chan now._

Satsuki hummed, smiling as she looked down at the message. She then looked up towards the sky which was now completely covered in gray storm clouds, the sun no longer visible due to the impending storm.

Tetsuna had won against Seiho, just as she'd expected. Now, they would be able to put the first leg of their plan into action.

 _And so it begins,_ she thought with a grin.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **Leave a review and tell me what you think of the story so far!**


	9. You Knew

**_IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE:_ After this chapter, the story will go on a one week hiatus as I'll be out of town on vacation. The story will resume after I get back on the 15th.**

* * *

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Kuroko no Basuke.**

* * *

During the break between the semifinals and the finals, Riko grilled Tetsuna about her analyzation skill. Ever since Tsugawa revealed this skill of hers at the end of their match, her teammates had been curious about it, all peppering her with questions. All, except for Kagami, who had fallen asleep leaning against the lockers.

"So how exactly does it work?" Riko asked, wide-eyed in curiosity.

"You're making it out to be more complex than it actually is," Tetsuna told her coach as she adjusted her wristbands. "It's not a power, or anything like that. It's just a skill that I've honed over the years. All I do is watch the players' movements and spot patterns. I then devise a plan based off of what I observe."

"No, that sounds kind of complex," Hyuuga commented. "I mean, you're the only one who spotted Seiho's weakness."

"I go by unnoticed most of the time, so that gives me the perfect opportunity to watch others. I just apply that to basketball," Tetsuna replied modestly, not quite used to the attention that she was getting. "Besides, I've never really done it alone. Back at Teiko, there were three of us who observed and created plays."

"Do you think you could come up with a plan for Shutoku?" Riko asked, eyes bright.

Tetsuna, however, bit her lip, suddenly unsure. "Perhaps, yes, but I'm not really sure how well it would go over. They have Shin-chan on their team, after all. He's known me since middle school, so he's familiar with how I think. And as you've seen, his shots are hard to stop. Once he gets in possession of the ball, he can shoot it from anywhere and still make it. I'll try to figure something out as we go along."

"Okay!" Riko declared. "Let's do this! Somebody wake Kagami-kun up."

Tetsuna walked over to her redheaded teammate and gave him a sharp jab in the ribs, successfully jolting him from his sleep. "What the hell was that for?" he asked groggily, rubbing at his side.

"The match is starting soon, Kagami-kun," she said flatly. "It's time to get going."

* * *

Midorima approached her while she was affixing her shoulder-length hair into a bun in preparation for the game. He had a look of steely determination of his face as he spoke to her.

"I didn't think you'd actually make it this far. But it ends here. No matter how weak, small, or unknown, any team can fight as long as they work together. That is nothing but an illusion."

A silence hung between them at those words, and Tetsuna narrowed her eyes at her former teammate. But she would win this game and show to him that those words were the truth. Midorima, however, was equally determined to win this game and show _her_ that the words were _false_.

"Come," he said, pushing up his glasses. "I will show you how foolish your choice was."

She stared at him for a while, turning over his words in her mind. It seemed that they were both trying to prove a point with this match. "No one knows what the right decision is to make in life, and that is not why I made this choice." She had chosen Seirin for their spirit, unrelenting and bright. She admired that spirit and felt that she could work well alongside them. And also, to accomplish her and Satsuki's goal of bringing her friends back together again. She smiled at Midorima as she continued, glancing fondly at her team. "Also, if I may disagree with one thing, it's that Seirin is not weak. We will not lose."

He gave her a long look, not saying anything as he turned away to line up with his team. She headed over to her own, a secret smile on her face. The two teams bowed to each other and headed off to their respective sides of the court. As they did, Takao glanced between Kagami and Midorima.

"Is Kuroko-san the only one you need to talk to? What about Kagami?" he asked, immediately catching Tetsuna and Kagami's attention.

"There's no need," Midorima said flatly. "There is no reason for me to talk to someone who played such a pathetic game. If you have something to say, you can show it to me with your play."

Tetsuna turned to Kagami, watching for his reaction.

The redhead grinned. "Right back at you," he said, shutting his eyes. "Just thinking about it makes me mad at myself. I've got tons of pent up frustration, so let's do this already. I've turned it all into rage, and I've been saving it for you." He then turned to Midorima and opened his eyes, looking at the green-haired youth with a smug expression. "I can't hold it in any longer."

Midorima shot a glare at Kagami. "What did you say?" He then scoffed and turned away, heading towards his team. "Do your worst."

The match begun with Kagami and Otsubo fighting for the tip-off. Kagami got to it first and hit it over to Izuki. However, before Izuki could initiate a run-and-gun like Seirin had planned, Shutoku's members were already guarding Seirin's.

 _They're quick,_ Tetsuna thought, eyeing the players who had immediately took up their stances when Izuki got the ball. _And their defense is strong. I haven't had enough time to find weaknesses that everyone can utilize, so…_

She easily slipped past her guard unnoticed, catching Izuki's gaze. He saw her and passed the ball over, and she hit it up to near the basket where Kagami was. He had gotten pass his guard when all of Shutoku's members were reacting to Tetsuna's disappearance. Kagami prepared to dunk, but Midorima appeared all of a sudden and slapped the ball out of Kagami's hands and into Takao's.

 _He saw through that?_ Tetsuna thought, eyes widening at Midorima. She then looked at the redhead, thinking of all the other times he had dunked unstopped. _Or rather…He predicted what Kagami-kun would do?_

Takao had the ball now, and took off towards Shutoku's side of the court, only to be stopped by Izuki. However, he did not falter and simply passed the ball from behind his back to his waiting teammate, who then ran up to the basket to shoot. Hyuuga jumped up, tapping the ball and causing it to miss.

It had been two minutes, and both teams had yet to score. Shutoku took possession of the ball, and none of Seirin's members could get it back. Takao passed it to Midorima who was standing around the half-court line. He jumped up and took a shot, the ball arching unstoppably high.

Tetsuna watched the trajectory of the ball closely, and evaluated Midorima's distance from Seirin's basket. _If we can't get the ball while it's in play, then…_

She ran towards the ball, going by Kagami as she did. "Keep running," she told him briskly, not bothering to wait for a response as she dashed down to Shutoku's basket. The ball fell through and bounced, once. Tetsuna caught it and eyed the other end of the court. Kagami wasn't there yet, but he would be. She took hold of the ball with one hand and cocked her arm back, preparing for the pass. As she launched it across the court, Midorima turned to stare at her, surprised. The ball went right by him, missing his face by centimeters. Then Kagami appeared, catching the ball with one hand, jumping up and dunking the ball, all before Shutoku could even react.

Tetsuna approached Kagami quickly while the spectators were all reacting to the shot. "We'll keep up this formation every time that Shin-chan has the ball. If we do so, then he won't be able to shoot."

"Sounds great," Kagami said with a grin.

The game continued, and they did as Tetsuna planned. The next time that Midorima had the ball, Tetsuna immediately took off towards the basket. Her green-haired friend noticed this and tossed the ball aside, not willing to take a shot with her right there. _It's working._

Takao had possession of the ball next, and he moved quickly through the court. There was something about the fluidness of his motions that bothered Tetsuna, though she couldn't quite put a finger on it. But then as he was confronted by Mitobe, he performed a backhanded pass to Otsubo, who ran up and made a shot.

Tetsuna's eyes widened. "That pass…" she murmured, staring at Takao. She then narrowed her eyes, looking long and hard at her friend's new teammate. _This guy is going to be troublesome._

The game continued and Hyuuga passed the ball to her. In the few brief seconds that it hung in the air in front of her, she looked around the court, eyeing her teammates and calculating the best course of action. Mitobe was the nearest to the basket, and there was a large gap between the two guys in front of him. Making her decision, she hit the ball towards her senior, watching as he immediately took hold of it and made a shot.

"Takao, Kimura, change marks," Shutoku's coach called out from their bench. "Takao, get on number 11."

Tetsuna looked to Takao, remembering the way that his movements had bothered her earlier. _This can't be good._

She was proven right when Takao performed another one of those backhanded passes, quick and done without looking. His teammate received the pass and made another basket.

Takao ran up alongside Tetsuna, grinning at her. He turned around so that he was running backwards. "I knew this would happen. Shin-chan would say it's our fate to fight against each other." He stopped running, causing her to pause as well. "But I didn't think we'd face each other so soon. It occurred to me the first time we met. You and I are the same kind of person. We're both first years, too. Passing is no big deal to us, so I guess you could say I hate you because you're like me. I just don't want to lose to you."

Tetsuna blinked at him a few times, not showing the irritation that came with his words. Instead, she cocked her head to the side. "You talk a lot, don't you?"

"Huh?" Takao said, taken aback by her response.

"It's a wonder that Shin-chan hasn't killed you yet, especially since you're calling him by that nickname," she continued, thinking of the one time that Daiki had called Midorima by that nickname as a joke, and the deadly aura that had emanated from the green-haired sharpshooter in response to the jab. "Well, I suppose he has something else in mind for you."

"Hey!" Takao said, eyes wide. "What's that supposed to mean?"

She didn't even know what she meant by that herself. She had just said it to rile Takao up, and it had obviously worked. She smiled a bit to herself as the game continued.

Takao intercepted a pass that was meant for Tetsuna, then tossed it to one of his teammates, who made a shot. Takao turned to Tetsuna again, no longer fazed by her previous words. "I've never felt this before, but I think it's because there's something different about you."

Tetsuna stared blankly at him, unblinking. "I'm sorry. No one has ever said that to me before, so I don't know what to say. But I think I have a similar feeling."

"That's good," Takao said, pleased. He blinked, and in that split second, Tetsuna moved. The ball came towards her, and she prepared to pass it to Hyuuga. The pass left her hands at the usual speed, but instead of going to her captain, it was stopped by Takao, who immediately went and made a shot out of it.

"That's the first time she's made a mistake," Hyuuga commented.

"That probably wasn't a mistake," Izuki corrected. "Takao has the same eagle eye that I have. No…His _hawk_ eye's field of vision is even larger than mine. The hawk eye allows him to see everything. He's not just trying to watch Kuroko. In other words, her misdirection doesn't work against Takao."

Tetsuna was barely even listening to her seniors as her brain worked furiously to process what just happened. Had Takao really stopped her pass and seen through her misdirection? But she had been honing that ever since she was a child. She and Akashi would play basketball together almost every day, and he had helped her to develop that misdirection technique. By the time she got to middle school, it was good enough to get her immediately placed on the first string. And by the time the beginning of third year rolled around, her misdirection was unstoppable. True, there was a time towards the end of third year when she had quit basketball, but even upon entering high school, her misdirection was as strong as ever. So why? How?

Seirin called a time-out right then and there, and Tetsuna was immensely grateful for it. She needed time to just _think._

"Hey," Kagami said, placing a hand on her head. "Don't tell me you're going to keep letting them shut you down."

"Kagami-kun, please be quiet. I'm trying to think," she said briskly. He looked a bit taken back by her tone, but said nothing. The rest of her team fell silent as she thought, all watching her in anticipation.

Takao could see her and stop her passes. Her misdirection wouldn't work, there was no changing that, at least with this form of it. But even if it didn't work, there was something she could try: a pass that moved so fast and unpredictably that it was impossible to stop.

She had slowly developed it in the beginning of her middle school years with Daiki's help, and it had seemed all fine and good until she had used the finished version in a match. The thing with the pass was that it required a large amount of physical strength on her part, as well as rotating her wrist quickly. It had been fine when she was practicing because she had never exerted the entirety of her strength. But she did just that during that game, and had ended up with a severe wrist sprain that put her out of commission for a whole month. Needless to say, her overprotective childhood friend had banned her from using it again. Perhaps it had been a problem of her lack of physical strength at the time, and it would be fine to use it now as she'd certainly grown stronger in the three years since she'd last used that pass. But it would be a gamble, one that shouldn't be taken with that stakes as they were now. Even so…

"Coach, please let us keep going like this," she requested. "I'll figure something out for sure."

"Are you sure?" Riko asked worriedly. "Your misdirection won't work against Takao."

"I have an idea, but it'll be a while longer before I can know whether or not it'll work," she admitted. "So for now…"

Riko sighed. "Alright. Go do it then."

They headed back out onto the court, and Tetsuna rotated her wrist experimentally. Like she had told Riko, she would evaluate the situation first, determining how the pass would fit in should she choose to use it.

"Hey, did you come up with a plan?" Takao asked with a grin as he continued to mark her.

"I'm still thinking," she replied.

The game continued on with Takao making a shot first. However, Hyuuga struck back, making another shot to match Shutoku's.

Tetsuna stole the ball as one of Shutoku's players passed it, only for her steal to be stolen by Takao.

Midorima got the ball and stood at the center line. He made a shot from there, and the ball went in with ease, much to the dismay of Seirin's team. With less than a minute left in the first quarter, the score was 11-16 in Shutoku's favor.

Midorima ran back to the end of the court. "As long as I'm here, you can't get behind be with Tsuna-chan's passes. But it's all irrelevant. My shots are three points, and your counter is only two. Even if we do nothing, the gap will still grow wider."

As the game went on, Hyuuga passed to Kagami, who ran up to the basket with Midorima marking him. Instead of running past Midorima, Kagami threw the ball up like he was making a three-pointer. He then sprinted past the sharpshooter who was currently distracted by the shot and slammed the ball in as it bounced off against the rim.

Seirin ran back to the other side of the court to get ready to defend. However, Midorima didn't move from where he was standing. Instead, he dribbled the ball a few times and held it firmly in his hands as everyone's attention turned to him. He then proceeded to make a full-court shoot.

And just as the first quarter ended, the ball went into the hoop after travelling the distance of the entire court.

 _What was that?_ Tetsuna thought, still staring at Midorima. _Since when could he do that?_ She was then reminded of how much Kise's skills had changed. She had been surprised by it that day when he had shown up at Seirin. That day, she had thought about the improvements of the others as well, but to think that it would be at this degree…

During the two-minute break between quarters, Riko asked Tetsuna if Midorima had always been able to make shots like that.

"I've only seen him shoot from as far as the half line," she replied.

"The Generation of Miracles are ridiculous," Hyuuga commented.

"How are we supposed to stop that?" Koganei wondered.

"For now, work on keeping the ball away from Shin-chan," Tetsuna said. "If he doesn't have the ball, then he can't make ridiculous shots. As for Takao-kun…I don't know about getting my passes past him, but have you noticed how fluid all his movements seem? He can transition seamlessly between one movement and the next. If we disturb his rhythm, then his passes won't be as smooth, either."

"Let's do that, then!"

The game continued with her teammates following her instructions. Hyuuga and Izuki surrounded Takao, moving around him quickly and disturbing his rhythm. The plan worked, for Takao seemed to have trouble transitioning from one movement to the next. As a result, his pass was a little off, and Tetsuna got ahold of it. Since Takao wasn't able to mark her at the moment, she successfully passed it to Kagami, who made a basket.

They continued with this for a while, disrupting Takao's rhythm and thereby keeping the ball far away from Midorima. They did not always manage to score, but they reduced the amount of times that Shutoku did.

Then, there had been one pass that they weren't able to block, and the ball went to Midorima. Tetsuna stood in front of him, watching as an unimpressed look crossed over her friend's face. She let him get past her, prepared to perform a back-tip like she had done in the match against Kise. But she had forgotten about Takao, who suddenly showed up, preventing her from performing that move.

"Hey now," Takao said smugly. "Don't do crude stuff like that."

Midorima ran up to the basket, and shot it easily, even with Kagami trying to slow him down. With their formation now scattered, Seirin was not able to go on like they were before, disturbing Takao's rhythm and keeping the ball from Midorima. Thus, it was very easy for the green-haired sharpshooter to get in possession of the ball again and he took a shot from where he was standing, making it easily and bringing Shutoku's score to 24. Seirin made a come-back shot, but it was not enough as Midorima continued to score as well.

"No matter how much you score," he said, dribbling the ball. "you cannot stop my shot." He proved his statement by taking a shot. However, Kagami ran towards him.

"No you don't!" he shouted as he jumped up, incredibly high, as always. But it was no use. The shot went in, further increasing the gap between their two teams.

There were seven minutes left in the second quarter, and Shutoku was in the lead, 27-15.

But after seeing Kagami jump like that, Tetsuna had gotten an idea.

* * *

"There might be something we can do about Shin-chan's shots," she told her team when they met in the locker room during the break between the two halves of the game.

"What?" Her teammates all turned to her, suddenly looking hopeful again.

Tetsuna turned to Kagami. "I got the idea when I saw you jump," she said to the redhead, much to his surprise. "We might not be able to stop his shots, but we can do something about their trajectory. We can make him miss," she clarified. "The next time he takes a shot, Kagami-kun will jump up and tap the ball."

"I see," Riko said, tapping a finger to her chin. "If Kagami-kun taps the ball, then it'll mess up the path that Midorima-kun sends it on. Then it won't be able to go in as easily. Can you do it, Kagami-kun?"

The redhead in question grinned widely. "Of course!"

Tetsuna smiled fondly at that response. _A pointless question, huh?_

"But what about Takao?" Hyuuga asked. "The plan that Kuroko came up with earlier worked out really well, but they seemed to have found a way around it."

Tetsuna then held up a camcorder that she had gotten ahold of after the second quarter. "I also have this. Someone taped Takao-kun during the first half. I'll watch this and come up with something else."

Riko nodded in agreement. "Okay. Then for the beginning of the second half, Tetsuna-chan will be benched. The rest of you, play your best!"

"Yeah!"

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

As Midorima prepared to take another shot, Taiga ran towards him, prepared to follow through on the plan that Tetsuna had come up with during their break. Midorima launched the shot, and Taiga jumped, hand outstretched. However, the shot arched higher than he anticipated, missing his fingertips by a hair's breadth.

 _So close!_ Taiga thought, annoyed. _But…I won't lose!_

Koganei made a shot for Seirin, then Takao passed the ball to Midorima. Taiga prepared to jump again, determined to make it this time. _Playing against an opponent who's impossible to beat excites me,_ he thought as jumped up, _but there's no point if I don't win!_

He let out a loud yell as he rose through the air, higher and higher, no sign of landing any time soon. And this time, his efforts paid off. As the shot was launched, the tips of Taiga's fingers brushed against the ball, and he watched as the direction the ball went in changed ever so slightly. It still went in, but the shot was far less smooth than the others had been. _Here's our opening!_ Taiga thought excitedly.

As he walked away from Midorima, the green-haired player turned to him. "Hey. What's your sign?"

Taiga looked at him, confused. "Me?" he asked. He then recalled Tetsuna saying something earlier about Midorima and horoscopes. "I'm a Leo."

"The horoscope really is always right," Midorima said, an irritated look crossing his face.

The game continued with Hyuuga making another shot. When Shutoku had the ball again, Taiga went back to marking Midorima. _I won my game against Kise,_ he thought as he watched Midorima's movements. _But that was because Kuroko was there. I didn't win by myself. If that's what it takes to win, that's fine. But what if Kuroko isn't there? If her basketball doesn't work in the future, will I lose? No! I refuse to lose!_

Midorima got by him in the moment when he was lost in thought, and Takao traded places with his teammate as the green-haired youth prepared to shoot.

"It's two-on-one now!" Takao said.

"I'll still stop you!" Taiga shot back. "Thanks to all the times you've showed me, I've finally found your weakness!"

He ran by Takao at top speed and barreled towards Midorima. _The longer the shot,_ Taiga thought, jumping up to tap the ball, _the longer it takes to release it!_

This time after he tapped it, the ball bounced off the rim, and Taiga had a momentarily silent sense of victory before Otsubo, Shutoku's captain, ruined it by getting the rebound and dunking it back into the basket, securing the shot for his team.

But Taiga refused to give up. The next time that Midorima took a shot, Taiga jumped higher than the time before, and instead of simply tapping the ball, he was able to slam it down onto the ground, completely blocking the shot. Izuki got the ball and ran to their basket which was just nearby.

 _I can't just rely on Kuroko and my upperclassmen,_ he thought, panting hard. Resolute in this new idea, he ran up to Otsubo who was preparing to shoot, completely ignoring the fact Koganei and Mitobe were already marking the captain.

 _I'll become stronger,_ Taiga thought as he ran. _Strong enough to win without relying on others. Strong enough to win by myself!_ He jumped up and knocked the ball from Otsubo's hand just moments before the ball went into the basket. However, a whistle blew and the referee walked over, calling a foul on him. Yet, Taiga continued with his determined thinking. _I'll win! Even if I have to do it myself!_

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

As she watched Takao, the beginnings of an idea blossomed in Tetsuna's mind. She wasn't quite sure if her yet-to-be-used-pass would fit into the plan, but it was still an idea, and once she had one of those, a fully-developed plan wasn't that far off.

However, there was something else besides Takao that was filing her with unease.

Her redheaded teammate.

Tetsuna watched Kagami's movements with a certain degree of concern. True, the redhead seemed to be continuously increasing in strength, even if he just got a foul, but there was something about the look on his face that reminded Tetsuna of something from the past. Something unpleasant. Her unease increased as the game continued on, and she overheard Kagami's request to Koganei: "Can you give me the ball more?"

This was starting to remind her far too much of someone else.

And suddenly, Kagami was in possession of the ball much more often. He made those incredible jumps without pause, dunking the ball repeatedly, closing the gap in the scores. But Tetsuna could tell that he was growing tired, and so did the other players, who made note of it.

"Shut up!" Kagami hollered. "I won't lose like this!" He jumped up, prepared to dunk, but Midorima stopped him, getting the ball to one of his teammates who then proceeded to make a shot.

And the look on Kagami's face right then…Tetsuna couldn't stand it. He had gotten considerably stronger, yes, but the way he was playing, relying only on himself, disregarding the presence of his teammates was more than she could stand.

 _Please, Kagami-kun,_ she begged silently. _Don't change like they did..._

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Satsuki sat in the bleachers of Touou's gym as Imayoshi reprimanded Daiki for skipping practice, and demanded that he show up at next week's practice, or the consequences wouldn't be pretty for him. Daiki appeared to be only half-listening to his captain's commands and Satsuki sighed at that. Normally, Daiki just didn't listen to Imayoshi because he didn't care what the captain had to say, but Satsuki knew his distraction was for a different reason today.

Tetsuna was playing against Midorima today. Right this very moment, in fact.

Satsuki checked her phone again, reading over a message that Midorima had sent her earlier. She seemed to be getting a lot of messages today.

 _From: Midorin_

 _That Kagami Taiga might be more troublesome than we first thought. I don't like the way he looks at Tsuna-chan._

To that, Satsuki had responded: _And in what way does he look at her?_

 _Like he hates it when others make a pass at her,_ had been his response. He was talking about Tsugawa, Satsuki figured, as the bald player was sure to have said something to Tetsuna. _Like he feels something more than friendliness towards her._

She had stared at that message, not quite sure how to respond to that. Perhaps it wasn't too surprising. Tetsuna wasn't exactly hard to like, just hard to notice. But once she was noticed, her spirit and character were quite enthralling. And perhaps that was why she had chosen Seirin, for they had a spirit to match hers. Satsuki could recall several occasions when she too had been fascinated by the other girl, and not just by those incredible passes. And just as Daiki had been enraptured by that bright spirit and determination, that kindhearted girl behind that expressionless mask, so had Kagami, apparently. Midorima could be wrong, of course, but Satsuki had doubts about that.

Meanwhile, Imayoshi concluded his spiel on responsibility and commitment, patting Daiki on the back (a gesture that greatly irritated him) and sending a friendly wave in Satsuki's direction before exiting the gym. Daiki sauntered over to her and flopped down next to her on the bleachers.

"There, I talked to him. Happy now?" his tone was terse, still annoyed with Imayoshi and his long speech.

Satsuki sighed. "Yes, but I'd be even happier if you would actually listen to what he says."

Daiki shrugged, a dark look crossing his face. "There's no point in going to practice. It's not necessary for me. The only one who can beat me is me."

She bit her lip and rolled her eyes, wondering just what her best friend saw in Daiki. Then again, he hadn't always been like this. And that was the point of the plan, right? To return everything to the way they used to be, to fix everything that had gone wrong. But even so, Satsuki figured that Tetsuna would always care for Daiki, no matter what he was like.

"Is Seirin facing Shutoku yet?" Daiki asked haltingly.

"Yeah, just as we predicted," she replied with a smile. She did take note of his hesitant tone, and wondered just what Daiki made of Tetsuna and Midorima going against each other.

She wondered if she should go watch the match. Of course, she wanted to see her best friend play. It had been so long since she'd seen the teal-haired girl's amazing passes, or witnessed as Tetsuna's quick mind devised a plan to win against their opponents. And playing with Shutoku as her opponent… The match was bound to be a very interesting one. One that she'd like to see very much. But what if, when she brought it up, Daiki decided, that he wanted to go as well?

She still hadn't found a good way to tell him about Kagami, a way to explain that yes, Tetsuna _had_ found a new partner, but no, Tetsuna _wasn't_ replacing him, and could never replace him in fact. But she was running out of time. Sooner or later, (sooner if Seirin won against Shutoku today), Touou would play against Seirin. And when that happened, Daiki would see Kagami playing with Tetsuna, just as he used to. Daiki would have to play against them playing like that. It would not be pleasant for Daiki to do, or for Satsuki to watch. Tetsuna wouldn't enjoy it either, playing against her old partner with her new one, but what could any of them do? But Daiki would take it the hardest, and he always behaved without thinking when he was angry. Yes, he did that even when he wasn't angry, but it was far worse when he was. After all, from what Satsuki had gathered, it was something that Daiki had done out of anger and frustration that had caused the rift between him and Tetsuna.

Thus, imagining her childhood friend's reaction to the Kagami and Tetsuna situation did not bode well with her.

"That's good," Daiki murmured, bringing Satsuki out of her troubling thoughts. "Seirin may be weak, but at least Tetsu is strong."

At that, part of Satsuki just wanted to tell him about Kagami—wanted to tell Daiki that one of Seirin's strongest players was playing alongside Tetsuna, and that that player might be developing feelings for Tetsuna (if Midorima's conjectures were to be believed, that is)—just to see if he would run to her and ask for her forgiveness, confessing his love right then and there.

It would be a very risky gamble, and she wasn't quite sure what Tetsuna would make of it, so she said nothing on that matter. Instead, she just levelled a long, steady look at her friend. He didn't see it, or maybe he was just ignoring her, lost in his own thoughts. It was hard to keep up with him these days.

"It's going to start raining soon," Satsuki mused, looking through the open gym doors and towards the graying skies. "We should probably head home or we'll be stuck here for a while." The day had dawned bright and sunny, so neither had thought to bring an umbrella.

Daiki huffed out a short breath and stood up, rolling out his shoulders as he did. "Let's go, then."

They walked in silence, which may have been unusual once, but no longer. It was another one of the effects of the changes that had happened in their third year at Teiko. Honestly, Satsuki was growing weary of all this, and hoped desperately that her and Tetsuna's plan—it was both of theirs, now, as they had collaborated to hammer down details, just like old times—would turn out successfully.

They arrived at Satsuki's apartment complex, which was a few minutes' walk away from Daiki's. He bid her goodbye, and she stood there waving until he was out of sight. Then, she hurried up to her apartment, grabbed an umbrella, and headed off towards the gymnasium where the match between Shutoku and Seirin was being held.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

The third quarter ended, and Kagami's behavior was disturbing Tetsuna more and more. While she stood next to Riko, facing the five players who just got off the court, Kagami sat on Seirin's bench, an unreadable expression on his face. But she had seen that expression before. She didn't like it then, and she didn't like it now.

"Damn it!" Kagami swore, tone flooded with irritation.

"Kagami, you're getting too worked up," Izuki reprimanded. "Pay more attention to your surroundings."

"That's right," Hyuuga agreed, taking a swig from his water bottle. "And that wasn't the right time to go, you should've passed first." He was talking about a play they performed earlier when Kagami had gone in for a shot instead of passing, which would've been a better course of action.

"What good would passing the ball around have done?" Kagami asked quietly. "I'm the only one who stands a chance against Shutoku. We don't need to play as a team right now. We need me to score."

"Hey, what are you saying?" Izuki protested.

"That's not simply being self-centered," Koganei added.

It was too much. Hearing him talk like that was just too much. This behavior of his, slowly drawing away from his team and setting out to win on his own, believing that he _could_ win on his own, it was all too much like _they_ had behaved during third year. They had drawn away from her and from each other. Suddenly, her and Satsuki's painstakingly put together plans were no longer necessary. Suddenly, they didn't need her on the court, getting the ball to them whenever they needed it. They started scoring on their own, trying to outscore the other four. They were no longer playing the game. They were just showcasing their talents, trying to be better than their own teammates.

And here was Kagami, jumping those incredible jumps, showing off that strength of his that would eventually be enough to rival the other Miracles. She had been relying on that strength to win against her friends, to show them the error of their ways. But she had counted on part of that strength to come from working as a team. If Kagami behaved like this, using that strength for himself instead of for his team, wasn't it just proving _their_ point instead of hers?

 _"The only one who can beat me is me."_ Daiki's words, as he decided he would play on his own. As he decided that her passes were no longer necessary to him. That _she_ was no longer necessary to him. She thought about him walking away from her, and how much more withdrawn he had become after that.

 _"However, someday he'll achieve the level of the Generation of Miracles and grow apart from his team for sure. Won't he be a different person then?"_ Kise's words now. She never would've guessed it, but the blonde had been right. Tetsuna gritted her teeth bitterly. _No. Ryou-chan's wrong. He_ has _to be wrong. Because…_

Because the alternative was simply too painful to consider. It would mean that there would be no hope for this plan of working, no matter how much effort she and Satsuki put into it. It would mean that they would remain the way they are now. She would never see her childhood friend again without seeing the Emperor as well. Daiki would never come back to her. She would be a shadow without its light, a harmony without its melody, simply incomplete.

 _"I will show you just how naïve your thinking is."_

No. That wouldn't happen— _couldn't_ happen. Tetsuna had never been one for giving up easily after all.

She walked up to Kagami without a word. He looked up at her, looking pissed off and frustrated.

Then, she punched him.

She never had much physical strength, so the impact wasn't large. His head snapped to the right, a shocked look crossing his face. Her knuckles throbbed from the impact, but she didn't particularly care.

"You can't play basketball by yourself," she said as calmly as she could manage. Kagami was glaring at her, looking like he'd very much like to hit her back. He probably would've if Hyuuga hadn't been there to restrain him.

"As long as we play nice together, you don't care if we lose?" Kagami demanded, angrier than she'd ever seen him. "There's no point if we don't win!"

"There's no point if we don't win _as a team_ ," she countered, meeting his glare with one of her own, though her tone was relatively calmer. "You said you wanted to beat the Generation of Miracles, but you're thinking just like them. You're behaving just as they did during our third year at Teiko, just as they're behaving now. Do you really want to do that? Even if we beat Shutoku as team that can't trust each other, no one will be happy."

"Don't be so naïve!" Kagami yelled, breaking free of Hyuuga's grasp and taking hold of her shirt, dragging her close. She supposed she was lucky that he didn't just punch her right then and there. "If we don't win, those are nothing more that nice words!"

And suddenly Midorima was there, thrusting Kagami aside roughly. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"You stay out of this!" Kagami demanded.

"Like hell I will!" Midorima shot back. "You think you can just hurt Tsuna-chan and get away with it?"

"Shin-chan!" Tetsuna interjected before Midorima could do something that would get both him and Kagami thrown out of the game. "It's fine. I'm fine. We were just talking." He raised a doubtful eyebrow at her and turned his glare back to Kagami. "Shin-chan, please. Everything's fine."

Midorima sent Kagami one of those glares that promised a painful and slow death, then looked over Tetsuna a few times, checking and double-checking that she was alright. He then sent a look to the rest of Seirin's team that basically said, _You're all dead if you let that idiot do anything else to her._

Tetsuna watched Midorima leave, waiting until he was out of earshot before turning back to Kagami. "Kagami-kun. Let me ask you something. What is victory? No matter how many more points you have at the end of the game, if you're not happy, that's not victory."

Even with all their wins during their third year, not a single one of those had been a victory. She had hated that, and she refused to let it happen again.

Kagami was looking at her weird now, as if her words had resonated with some part of him but he still couldn't quite comprehend their meaning. But she needed him to understand this. If he did, then history wouldn't repeat itself.

"That's right!" Koganei agreed awkwardly, his upbeat voice penetrating the silence. "It's not as though we want to lose. We're just saying that there's no reason for you to do it all by yourself."

"Do you have any objections?" Hyuuga asked.

"No, but…" Kagami began slowly, gradually coming out of his haze of anger. He looked at her apologetically. "Sorry. Of course I'd rather be happy when we win."

"Good," she said, letting out a breath she didn't realize she was holding.

"I'm really sorry," he told her, looking awkward now. "Midorima and Kise are probably going to kill me later…"

"Don't worry. I'll stop them before they do too much damage," she deadpanned.

Kagami gaped at her for a moment, before sighing resignedly. "I guess I deserve that."

"Okay, it seems that Kuroko has managed to calm Kagami down," Hyuuga said, smiling. "The situation hasn't changed though."

"Actually…" Tetsuna began.

She told her team about her plan to deal with Takao, but hesitated when she came to the pass she'd devised in middle school. There were several problems with it, the first being the potential of injury. Last time, she couldn't use her right hand for a whole month. Not to mention that Akashi would likely kill her if she put her health at risk again. But she had grown stronger since then, so she brushed that concern aside. However, given the nature of the pass, would Kagami even be able to catch it?

And therein lay another problem with this troublesome pass of hers. She had practiced it with Daiki, designed it for Daiki to catch. It was a pass where the ball moved so fast that it appeared invisible, its course impossible for anyone to predict save for her and the person receiving it. Would Kagami even be able to catch it?

But Kagami had been surprising her at every turn, with those incredible jumps and the confident way that he went up against each of the Miracles. Yes, Kagami might just be able to do it.

So she turned to him and told him of the pass.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Satsuki arrived at the stadium towards the end of the fourth quarter. Shutoku was in the lead with 81 points, but only by two points. Tetsuna was out on the court, panting hard, and Kagami wasn't far away. Midorima was glaring at the redhead, and Satsuki wondered if something had happened.

A black-haired Shutoku player was marking Tetsuna, and Satsuki was confused by the way that Tetsuna couldn't quite seem to get by him. _Wait…Can he_ see _Tetsu-chan?_

She briefly recalled everything she knew about Shutoku's number 10, Takao Kazunari. There was something about a hawk's eye that allowed him to see everything on the court. Satsuki's eyes widened at the implications of such a skill. It would mean that Tetsuna's misdirection would be lost on him.

Tetsuna, however, did not seem deterred. Then Satsuki realized the odd twist to her best friend's wrist, something that she had seen before. _But she got injured the last time she used that pass!_

But Tetsuna seemed to have decided to use it, anyways. She moved passed Takao, who was sending her a cocky grin, as if saying _"I can see you, and there's nothing you can do about that."_

But for this pass, it didn't matter if he could see Tetsuna. Hell, part of the success of this pass relied on him watching her and no one else. And as the ball came towards Tetsuna, Satsuki clasped her hands together in fear and anticipation as Tetsuna moved. Takao moved with her, hands out to stop the block, as if he had already done so many times before. He must have, if she was pulling this pass out. Tetsuna's wrist turned in a half circle, and turned back as she hit the ball, sending it not in a straight direction like her other passes, but in somewhat of a curve.

"Lightning pass," Satsuki murmured.

The nature of the pass was this: Firstly, it moved at an impossibly fast speed, faster than any of her other passes, making it near impossible for someone to even _see_ , never mind reach out and catch it. Secondly, the path the ball took when hit would be hard to predict as well, thereby making it hard for opponents to block as they could not know where it's going.

The pass had been designed for Daiki. The pass had been designed _with_ Daiki. Satsuki remembered all those days after school when she would watch her two friends work on this pass, perfecting the technique, but not actually applying it at full strength as it would strain Tetsuna's body too much. The first and last time it had been used was during a match at the end of their first year. The point difference had been close, just like it was now between Shutoku and Seirin, and they were simply running out of time. And the pass had worked well that time, their opponents not even realizing that the ball had moved until Daiki had dunked it in, winning them the game. And Tetsuna had gotten injured, not able to use her wrist for a whole month. Akashi had forbidden her from using that pass as a result.

Now, Satsuki watched as that pass blew past—not past, _around—_ Takao, the black-haired player's outstretched hand missing the ball by at least a foot. He obviously hadn't expected that. The ball barreled down the court, practically invisible to the naked eye until that redhead appeared under the net, and the ball came to a rest snugly inside is outstretched hands. Even from up on the second floor balcony, Satsuki could see his wince of pain as he caught it. He jumped up high—who even jumps that high, Satsuki wondered—and dunked the ball, bringing Seirin's score up to 82.

And Satsuki thought the game was won—everyone thought the game was won as Seirin's team started cheering. But Midorima was stubborn, not willing to accept defeat even if there were only three seconds left on the clock. He got possession of the ball, in preparation to make a buzzer beater as she had seen him do so many times before. Kagami was standing in front of him and by the looks of it was out of energy. Satsuki thought about that jump she just saw, thought about how much energy it would take, and realized that the redhead probably couldn't jump like that again.

She was wrong.

He jumped up, still impossibly high, but it was all for naught. For Midorima seemed to have predicted Kagami's actions, and did not begin to shoot until Kagami was on his way down.

 _Midorin, how cruel,_ she thought.

But then Tetsuna was there, seemingly unharmed from using the pass as it was with her right hand that she knocked the ball from Midorima's hands as the buzzer went off, signaling Seirin's victory.

Satsuki jumped up, ecstatic. Tetsuna had won!

Then the smile dropped from her face and her heart stopped as she saw Daiki standing a few rows in front of her at the very head of the stands, hands gripping the railing so tightly that his tanned skin around his knuckles had turned white. She knew who he was looking at without even having to see for herself. She could tell by the tight set of his jaw and that odd sheen in his eyes. She walked over to him slowly, as if approaching a wild animal. She had no idea how he would react, whether his shock would override his anger or if he would simply just snap.

"Dai-chan…" she said softly, unconsciously using his childhood nickname that she hadn't used since he changed. She put a gentle hand over his, squeezing lightly. In one brisk movement, he slapped her hand away and whirled to face her.

"You knew," he said, his voice a hoarse whisper. His eyes were bright, something wild burning in them as he stared her down. " _You knew_."

She nodded in silent confirmation, not sure how he had drawn that conclusion. Not that it mattered, for it was true all the same. They both turned to look down at the court, where Seirin's team was converging around Kagami and Tetsuna, greeting them with excited smiles and cheers. Tetsuna had one of those small rare smiles on her face, bright and cheerful, not holding back any emotion at all. Because of that, Satsuki could see a note of unsureness, one that no one else saw, perhaps thinking about that pass she made earlier, the one that was supposed to be meant for Daiki and Daiki alone.

"She had no choice," Satsuki tried. "She needed that pass to get pass that number 10…" she trailed off, knowing well that that wasn't the only thing that Daiki was upset about. Kagami threw an arm over Tetsuna's shoulders, grinning at her like an idiot. Satsuki saw it, then, that look that Midorima had mentioned earlier. It was so small and faint that maybe even the redhead himself wasn't aware of it, wasn't aware of his developing feelings. But she saw it, and so did Daiki, somehow. Perhaps because he knew that look well.

"You knew," he said again, taking a stumbling step back from the railing, still staring wide-eyed at Kagami and Tetsuna. "You knew and you didn't say a thing! I knew you were hiding something from me, but this…"

"What do you mean you knew I was hiding something from you?" Satsuki asked, taken aback by the declaration.

He scoffed, though his eyes did not move from Tetsuna and Kagami. "Please. You didn't bug me about going to any of her matches, not even once. Before, you were always telling me to go see her, and suddenly you stopped saying anything. I'm stupid, but not _that_ stupid."

"Dai-chan, I—"

"Don't call me that," he growled, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "Don't—just…Don't."

He turned and stalked away, bumping roughly into other people as he moved.

She stared after him with tears pricking at her eyes, those two words echoing in her mind.

 _You knew._

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **I'll start posting again after the 15th.**

 **See you then!**


	10. But It Wasn't with Him

**I'm back from my trip!**

 **(I actually typed this chapter during my trip, but I'm only posting it now.)**

 **I'm on winter break until January 2nd(or somewhere around then), so I'll try to be quick about updating. But being on break also makes me lazy, so we'll see how that turns out.**

 **Thanks for your patience and understanding, and here's chapter 10!**

* * *

While the rest of his teammates were distracted, Shintaro extracted himself from the clamor of the large gymnasium, heading outside for a breath of fresh air. It had started raining a while ago but he paid no mind to that as he walked through the downpour, coming to a stop at the main gates, where two stone pillars stood several meters apart from each other. He leaned against one of the pillars, tilting his head back and letting the rain pelt down onto his face.

He had lost.

For the first time in a very long time, he had lost a match. When was the last time that had happened? The beginning of his second year in middle school, perhaps, back before the five of them were dubbed the Generation of Miracles. But after that, victory had been an assured thing, a simple truth. And until now, he had forgotten what it felt like to lose, to realize that his opponents were better than him. Such a thing should have frustrated him, but it didn't. Probably because it was Tetsuna, and while Shintaro did have trouble agreeing to her views on certain issues, he could never be upset about losing to her. Though she lacked the physical strength and powerful abilities of the other five, she was exceedingly strong in her own right, devising brilliant plans and making incredible passes.

Speaking of passes…He thought about the pass that she had used in the final minutes of the match, the dangerous one that Akashi had told her not to use again for fear of injury. That had happened in their first year, and Tetsuna had obviously gotten stronger since then as her wrist was uninjured this time. Shintaro had made sure of that before coming out into the rain, leaving his friend with her new team.

No, he wasn't upset that he had lost to Tetsuna. He respected her, after all. But he wasn't quite sure how to feel about her new friend, Kagami Taiga. Though there were several things that he wanted to kill the redhead for (the way that he'd grabbed Tetsuna by the shirt earlier being one of them), he couldn't help but admit that Kagami was talented, and might even be able to reach the level of the Miracles one day if he could keep his idiocy in check. Shintaro had never seen anyone jump like that before, and those jumps would be a pain to deal with in the future, especially as Kagami grows stronger.

And there was also the fact that he had managed to catch Tetsuna's Lightning Pass, the one she and Aomine had made together that only Teiko's former ace could catch. It would be bad, he decided, if the short-tempered idiot were to find out that Kagami had caught that pass.

Shintaro still believed that Tetsuna had made a mistake choosing a weak school like Seirin, but they _had_ won today, so maybe it would be okay for now. He still couldn't quite agree with her other thoughts towards basketball, and maybe he never would, but then again the two of them had always gotten along fine despite their disagreements in matters pertaining basketball.

He sighed deeply, lowering his head to stare down at his shoes. His glasses were streaked with rainwater, and he removed them as they weren't helping his vision much. There was a strange burning sensation in the backs of his eyes that he refused to acknowledge. He looked up again when he heard the sound of approaching footsteps, loud and uneven.

"Aomine?" Shintaro questioned upon seeing his former teammate. The blue-haired ace was soaked and had an odd, disoriented look to his eyes, which was highly uncharacteristic of him. Added to the fact that he was coming from the gymnasium, his behavior could only mean one thing: he had seen Kagami. Or rather, he had seen Kagami and Tetsuna on the court together, had seen Kagami catch that pass. "What are you doing here?"

Shintaro wondered if Satsuki knew that Aomine was here. He would've thought that the former manager would've tried to keep her childhood friend from Seirin's matches, but maybe Aomine had come here without her knowledge. Or maybe she had some kind of plan in mind. It was hard to tell with her, almost as hard as it was with Tetsuna.

Aomine stumbled to a halt, staring hard at Shintaro. There was a bit of anger in his dark-blue eyes, as well as some hurt. Then, he let out a low chuckle, though it did not sound amused in the least. "So you knew as well, huh?"

"What are you talking about?" Shintaro asked, putting his glasses back on after he wiped the lenses with the fabric of his jersey.

"Oh, don't play dumb." There was something about Aomine's voice that made Shintaro feel like he should brace himself. For what, he wasn't sure, but the tone his former teammate was using sounded dangerous. "That redhead. Seirin's number 10."

Shintaro was never one for handling situations like this. He had comforted Tetsuna back in third year after Aomine left her in the rain, but that was _Tetsuna._ And he wasn't exactly feeling sympathetic towards Aomine right at the moment, especially since a part of him still blamed the ace for hurting Tetsuna back then.

"Tsuna-chan's new partner, you mean?" Shintaro said, well aware and not caring that he was basically poking a bear with a stick. "Yes, I did know about him. So did Kise, for that matter, and I'm sure that Tsuna-chan has informed Akashi as well."

"And Satsuki," Aomine added, levelling a glare at him.

"Of course. I was the one who told her, after all." If he hadn't just lost for the first time in two years and wasn't in such a foul mood as a result, he probably wouldn't have said that to Aomine. There was a fine line between skirting around the edges danger and running head-first into it.

Aomine's eyes widened for a fraction of a second before he moved, faster than Shintaro could track, and thrust him against the stone pillar, grabbing a fistful of his jersey. "You fucking bastard," Aomine growled. "Were the three of you trying to conspire against me or something?"

"Of course not," Shintaro replied, attempting to pry Aomine's fingers from his jersey. "Why would we do such a thing?" He could think of several reasons why they'd want to keep Tetsuna's new partnership from Aomine, but he didn't tell him that.

"Then how come I didn't know?" Aomine shouted. "How come you all knew but I didn't?" Though he was yelling and glaring, there something broken and defeated to his tone, something that suggested that he was more devastated than angry.

Shintaro didn't care.

He stopped prying at Aomine's fingers and instead pushed off from the pillar, shoving harshly against his former teammate. "Because you made Tsuna-chan cry! Because you hurt her with your callous words and actions!" he shouted, feeling almost as if a weight was being lifted as he finally spoke the words that he'd wanted to speak for so long. "You left her. You claim to care about her so much, but you _left_ her!"

"Shut the fuckup!" Aomine yelled. He cocked his arm, and punched Shintaro on the cheek before he could even react.

Shintaro responded in kind, punching Aomine in the jaw. Then they were going all out on each other, hitting and kicking while the rain poured down on them. He was vaguely aware of someone calling him by one of his nicknames—Shin-chan—in the distance. Not Tetsuna, as the voice was definitely not hers. Takao, then.

Suddenly, he was roughly being pulled away from Aomine, and Aomine was being hauled away from him. Shintaro struggled against whoever it was that had a hold on him, wanting to deliver another punch to his former teammate, even as his cheek throbbed in pain.

" _Enough_ ," a sharp voice said, and both Shintaro and Aomine froze immediately. There was only one person (two, arguably) who could have that effect on both of them.

They both looked over to see their former captain glaring at them with those mismatched eyes. Takao was standing a few paces behind, a rare look of horror in his eyes. Shintaro wondered if the redhead had heard what they were talking about.

There was a shaky and relieved sigh from behind him, and he turned to find that Kise had been the one to pull him away from Aomine. But what was there to be relieved about? Akashi's presence rarely boded well, especially after he changed. But Kise seemed relieved anyways, probably at the fact that Shintaro and Aomine were no longer seconds away from ripping out each other's throats. Kise's senior, Kasamatsu, was holding Aomine back, with less luck than Kise was having with Shintaro.

"Akashi," Shintaro said, recovering from his shock before Aomine could. "Why are you here?"

His captain turned a glare at him. "I came to see Tetsuna's matches. I did not, however, come to deal with two of my idiotic former teammates. Just what do the two of you think you're doing?"

Had it been anyone else asking, Shintaro would've made a sharp remark and Aomine would've said something that amounted to "mind your own fucking business."

But it was not someone else; it was _Akashi_ , and making either of those remarks would not have gone over well.

"We had a disagreement," Aomine muttered, shrugging out of Kasamatsu's grip. "It wasn't anything important." He made no move to hit Shintaro again, though he looked like he wanted nothing more than to do just that. Seeming to have deemed him harmless for the moment, Kise let go of Shintaro as well.

"A disagreement? Not anything important?" Akashi repeated, raising an eyebrow, unimpressed. The way he was talking to and looking at them made Shintaro feel as if he was a child in need of a scolding. "It seemed to me that you were talking about Tetsuna, and she's the opposite of not important. Am I wrong? Daiki? Shintaro?"

"No," Shintaro murmured. "You're right."

So Akashi _had_ heard their conversation. It didn't change much, for Akashi already knew everything that Shintaro had yelled at Aomine. It did mean that he had watched them pummel each other for a while before stepping in. Or maybe he wouldn't even have done anything at all if Kise and Kasamatsu hadn't shown up when they did. Somehow, Shintaro wasn't surprised at that fact.

Akashi then turned to his former ace, expectant. "Yeah, you're right," came the reply.

"Good," Akashi continued in a smooth tone. "It would appear that we're in agreement." He then turned his neck to look back at the gymnasium. "I would advise that you all get going now, less you want Tetsuna to see you here like this when she comes out. Until we meet again, then."

He left, with that, walking by them briskly, nodding once at Kise but not acknowledging Takao or Kasamatsu. Having known Akashi since their middle school days, Shintaro, Kise, and Aomine were all used to the mannerisms of their former captain. However, both Takao and Kasamatsu looked dumbstruck. Aomine left a minute later, staggering to his feet and sending Shintaro one last glare. Then Kasamatsu finally broke out of his stupor and turned to his junior.

"What in the world was that?"

Shintaro watched as Kise opened his mouth to explain, but failed at finding the necessary words to do so, as people often did when it came to Akashi. "That was Akashicchi," he said instead, trying for an awkward smile.

"Yeah, I got that," Kasamatsu said, rolling his eyes. "Now that your little reunion is over, we should get going. I'm hungry."

Kise sent a worried look in Shintaro's direction and he gave him faint nod, the pain finally numbing. Then Kasamatsu was leading Kise away, and Shintaro had to respect the guy for being able to handle Kise so well.

"So that was your former captain," Takao said in a forced lighthearted tone as he walked over to him. "Interesting guy."

"You could say that," Shintaro replied, massaging the spot where Aomine had first hit him. He tried to stand up, wincing in pain as he did; Aomine had landed a punch near his ribs as well, it would appear. "Though there are many other things to be said about him."

Takao looked him over from head to toe and sighed, holding out a hand to him. "Let's do something about your face first, then we can go get something to eat."

Shintaro stared at the outstretched hand for a moment, then took it.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"You want to tell me what that fight was about?" Kasamatsu asked after they had sat down and ordered at a nearby okonomiyaki restaurant.

Ryouta sighed at that. "Not particularly. It's kind of a private matter." His senior gave him a long look, but seemed to accept the answer. Kasamatsu didn't press him any further on the matter of what happened earlier, and Kise was grateful to his senior for that.

He hated to admit it, but he had been _scared_ when he had walked out of the gymnasium to see Aomine and Midorima throwing punches at each other and Midorima's teammate appearing out of nowhere, looking fearful for his friend and Akashi just _standing_ there, doing nothing as two of his former teammates beat each other half to death. He hadn't actually heard what the two were fighting about, but he could wager a pretty good guess based on what Akashi had said. He could also figure that Aomine had found out about Kagami. In a horrible way, too, as the redhead had caught a pass that Tetsuna had designed for and with Aomine. Not that he blamed Tetsuna for that.

He had also been scared—and this was a fright that he would admit—when Tetsuna had begun rotating her wrist in preparation for that pass. He had seen that movement before, watched as it developed and became stronger, and as it led to both a victory and an injury for Tetsuna. He remembered the moments after that with stunning clarity: their victorious cheers skidding to a halt as they realized that Tetsuna was on her knees, cradling her wrist. They had then rushed her to the hospital where they waited anxiously for the doctor to tell them about Tetsuna's condition. They had all been scared out of their minds that day. And he thought that his heart would stop when Tetsuna decided to use the pass again, hitting the ball and sending it zipping down the court in a wild arc. But the pass had been a wise call, even if it had been risky. And Tetsuna had been fine this time, showing that she'd grown much stronger since then. More surprisingly, was the fact that Kagami had actually caught it and dunked the ball. Aomine was the only one who could do so before.

Their food arrived, a savory aroma wafting upwards as the pancake hit the grill, brining Ryouta out of his thoughts and a smile to his face. They were just finishing up their meal when the door slid open and all of Seirin's team walked in, wet from the downpour.

"Tetsunacchi! Kagamicchi!" Ryouta called out, standing up and waving to his two friends. Much to his surprise, Kasamatsu did not reprimand him for doing so.

"Kise and Kasamatsu!" Kagami exclaimed, staring at the two in shock.

Because of the lack of seats, Kagami and Tetsuna sat with Ryouta and Kasamatsu. Kagami looked pissed about it, but there was not much else that could be done.

"Hey, Tetsunacchi," Ryouta began, breaking the tension that had settled amongst them, "is your wrist okay?"

She rotated it a few times before replying. "It's fine. A bit sore, but at least I didn't sprain it like I did last time."

"Last time?" Kagami questioned.

Ah, so the redhead didn't know. Ryouta half-listened as Tetsuna gave Kagami a brief synopsis of what happened the last time she had attempted the pass, and Kagami grinned at her, making some comment about how that was then and this was now, and how he would be willing to help her develop it further, if she wanted. He started listening full-on at this point, watching as Tetsuna's face suddenly closed off and her eyes became frigid. Kagami went on talking about other topics, oblivious to the sudden change in his teammate's expression. Even though her emotions and thoughts were normally impossible to discern, Ryouta could wager a pretty solid guess on what Tetsuna was thinking about. Or rather, _who_ she was thinking about. He wondered if his friend was having second thoughts about completing that pass with Kagami.

The door slid open again, and they all looked up as Midorima and Takao walked in and Tetsuna reacted immediately.

"Shin-chan, what happened?" she stood up, staring at him wide-eyed in concern. His right cheek was bandaged, as was the area above his left jaw. He looked far better-off than Ryouta had expected, though this gave him cause to wonder how Aomine had fared.

The two boys shared the briefest of looks, debating whether or not to tell their friend about Aomine's appearance. Ryouta figured they should, as it was not telling things that had gotten them to this point in the first place, but the glare that Midorima sent him had him pressing his lips together to keep silent.

The green-haired sharpshooter walked over to them. "There was a disagreement," he said, borrowing Aomine's words from earlier. "It was nothing important."

Tetsuna looked about as unimpressed and unconvinced as her childhood friend had been earlier, but didn't get a chance to question him further as Takao approached, looking curiously at Kasamatsu.

"Are you Kaijo's Kasamatsu?" he asked. There was something in his tone that made Ryouta feel like he was plotting something.

"How did you know?" Kasamatsu said, surprised.

"I saw you in Basketball Monthly!" Takao replied. "You're a nationally famous point guard. As someone who plays the same position, I'd love to hear your stories. Let's go talk over there." Then he was leading Kasamatsu away, giving Midorima no choice but to take the seat next to Kagami.

"You look horrible," Kagami commented and Midorima glared, looking as if he'd like to strangle to redhead.

"Kagami-kun," Tetsuna warned, narrowing her eyes at the redhead. He shrugged at her, and she huffed out a short breath before turning to Midorima.

"I'm fine," he said in reply to the worried looks that Tetsuna was giving him. "It's nothing to be concerned about."

Tetsuna sighed, looking like she'd very much like to debate that but remained silent on it. Instead, she reached for the menu and flipped through it. "Why don't we order something?" she asked, completely unfazed by the tension that was brewing between the three boys. "I'm hungry."

"I'm already pretty full, so I'm fine with what we already have," Ryouta said as Kagami called a waiter over. He rattled off an order that contained more food than a single person could possibly consume and Ryouta and Midorima sent him perplexed looks.

"Don't worry," Tetsuna told them. "Kagami-kun will eat it all himself."

"Is he really human?" Ryouta asked.

"He's sort of like Hi-chan, isn't he?" Tetsuna remarked and he grinned in agreement.

"Who?" the redhead asked.

"Murasakibara Atsuhi." Midorima answered, adjusting his glasses. "He's also one of the Generation of Miracles."

Kagami was instantly intrigued by this fact and looked like he wanted to ask more. He never got the chance to for the door slid open again, and Tetsuna stood up, once more wide-eyed and concerned.

She ran from the table and towards the door where a certain pink-haired manager was standing, looking at the ground with her arms wrapped around herself, completely soaked from the rain. She was wearing just a short skirt and a thin green jacket and was trembling from the cold, so Tetsuna took off her own jacket and wrapped it around her friend. Under different circumstances, it would've been worth cracking a joke over: Touou's manager wearing Seirin's jacket. But as it was, his former manager looked to be crying for some reason and so Ryouta left the table as well, walking towards where Tetsuna and Satsuki were standing. Midorima went over as well, and Satsuki looked to him, concerned.

"Midorin, you're face…"

"I'm fine," Midorima replied wearily. "More importantly, are _you_ fine?"

She hesitated for a minute and that was enough to let Ryouta know that she wasn't. When she finally answered them, her eyes were wide and sad.

"He found out."

* * *

After they ousted a confused Kagami from the table, the four former schoolmates sat together, ignoring the looks that they were getting from their own respective teammates. Satsuki had calmed down somewhat, though her eyes were still red and puffy at the edges. Meanwhile, Tetsuna had gone very, very still, looking conflicted and hesitant.

Satsuki had told them about going to watch the final few minutes of the match, only to find that Aomine had gone as well, and had seen Tetsuna and Kagami play together. At that point, she had sent Midorima an assessing look, and their green-haired friend had sighed and explained that he had run into Aomine and the two had fought. Ryouta then mentioned that he and Akashi had been there as well. Tetsuna had touched her wrist subconsciously at that, most likely thinking about Akashi forbidding her from using the pass.

"I wasn't trying to keep it from him," Tetsuna said at last, voice soft and defeated. "I wasn't exactly keen on him finding out and making assumptions, but I wasn't trying to hide it."

"I may have been," Satsuki admitted. "I mean, I had always planned on telling him, but I didn't want him to find out until I could find a good way to tell him."

Midorima frowned. "Given the circumstances, there is no good way to tell him about Kagami, who has taken his place."

Tetsuna tensed up at that. "I'm not replacing Daiki with Kagami-kun. I told you that already."

"I didn't say that you were replacing him; I said that Kagami has taken his place. There a difference." All three of them sent him a questioning glance, to which he sighed. "Kagami has taken Aomine's place, but Tsuna-chan wasn't the one who caused that to happen. _That's_ what I was trying to say."

He meant that Kagami taking Aomine's place wasn't Tetsuna's fault, a sentiment with which Ryouta agreed. But the girl herself did not look comforted at this. Instead, she looked like she might start crying as well.

"Somehow," she began, voice a little unsteady. "Somehow, I thought that he wouldn't even care what I do and with whom I play. With the way we left things in middle school, it just seemed like he doesn't even care anymore."

Satsuki nodded her agreement. "It did seem that way, but the reality is different, isn't it?" she asked, and Tetsuna responded with a miniscule nod. "I don't think either of you will ever just stop caring about the other, even if your relationship changes, no matter how things may seem."

"Things got bad in third year," Tetsuna said softly. "But I think you're right. Though I still don't know where everything will go from here."

"Why did it all have to turn out like this?" Satsuki murmured sadly.

Ryouta didn't know the details of Tetsuna and Aomine's falling out during third year. Neither did Satsuki, it would seem, though she probably knew more than him. Aside from the two involved, only Midorima and Akashi knew all that had happened, and neither were inclined to share. The rest of them only knew that an argument had taken place and that Teiko's strongest duo were no longer speaking to each other. Then Tetsuna had disappeared a while later, and after that Akashi and Satsuki were the only ones who knew where she was and what she was doing.

"In a way, that idiot got what he deserved for everything he said and did," Midorima said rather harshly. He had never been one to mince words, after all.

"Midorin!" Satsuki protested as Tetsuna sunk further down in her seat. There was an accusing tone in her voice, and Ryouta wondered if Aomine was the only one who had said and done horrible things back in their third year. It was a thought that he'd been entertaining ever since that conversation he had with Tetsuna after Kaijo lost to Seirin. He thought about what she'd said about them lacking something back then, and he thought that maybe he was starting to figure out what. He thought about Kasamatsu, who was constantly annoyed with and disciplining him, but still respecting his privacy as he had earlier. He thought about his new team, and how when they worked together, it reminded him of what it was like when he and his former teammates still played as a team.

And that was a problem, wasn't it? They had stopped being a team.

He thought that maybe it was not just Aomine, but all five of them, who had caused Tetsuna to leave and hate basketball. It was hard to come to terms with, as he did not even want to imagine hurting his friend. But the explanation made sense. It fit with everything that had happened and Tetsuna's recent words and actions. And if he really thought about it, some of their actions in their third year hadn't exactly been…respectable.

Midorima was looking at him odd now, and Ryouta realized that he had been lost in his thoughts while his three friends had continued to converse. "Kise, you've changed a little," he remarked.

"Really?" Ryouta asked, surprised.

"Your eyes. They're strange."

"Strange?" he said, not sure if it was meant as an insult. "Maybe it's because I've started practicing more since we played against Tetsunacchi. Also, lately I've been thinking…" he went on, his earlier thoughts coming back to him. "It's pretty fun playing basketball with the guys from Kaijo."

Now it was Tetsuna and Satsuki who were giving him odd looks, and he had a sneaking suspicion that his belief that the Miracles causing Tetsuna to leave was indeed correct. He also wondered if the two girls were plotting something together.

"It seems I was mistaken," Midorima said, taking a bite out of his okonomiyaki. "You have not changed at all. You have simply reverted to a state before our three consecutive championships."

Satsuki drew in a sharp breath and Tetsuna's unreadable expression betrayed the slightest traces of hurt and longing. Their reactions got Ryouta wondering about just how much the actions of third year had affected both of them. They had always been the most sensible, keeping the five boys in check. And when practice had gotten pointless, and games boring, Tetsuna and Satsuki had tried to talk to them about their behavior. Until the day that Tetsuna had disappeared, that is. And even then, after Tetsuna had made her thoughts about their new play style clear, they'd never bothered to ask Satsuki how she felt about it.

Midorima noticed the girls' reactions as well, though he did not seem to be thinking in the same way that Ryouta was. He finished off the rest of his food and stood to leave, setting down some money on the table to pay for his portion. "Takao, we're leaving," he called out to his teammate.

"Shin-chan, you should go get your injuries checked out," Tetsuna said as Midorima picked up his bag.

"I'll be fine," he reassured her. He gave her and Satsuki a small smile and Ryouta a hard, assessing look before walking over to the tables where the others sat. He said something to the Kagami that had the redhead looking at him in confusion. Then, he and Takao left the restaurant without another word.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Satsuki stepped outside the restaurant and stretched, feeling exhausted. The day had gotten to be so long, with Daiki finding out about Kagami and the awful confrontation that had followed. Everything after that had been a blur. She vaguely recalled running down the streets, not realizing until she was too far away to go back that she'd left her umbrella in the gymnasium. It had been by pure coincidence that she had stumbled into the shop where Tetsuna, Kise, and Midorima were eating, but she was grateful for that coincidence. She felt better now having spoken to her friends. Kise looked like he was doing better as well, and Midorima had even commented on the change in the blonde.

And of course this meeting had given her a chance to see Kagami from up close. When it came to the redhead, she'd always felt conflicted, unable to make a judgement on him as she'd never met him. After meeting him, she realized that she couldn't exactly hate Kagami, though a small part of her wanted to. He was not a bad person, and was an interesting player to watch. And the way he played reminded her so much of the way that Daiki used to. He also fit in so seamlessly to the spot Daiki used to occupy by Tetsuna's side. That bothered her the most, and she knew that her best friend was equally bothered as well, if not more.

But this was their situation now, no matter how much she wished it weren't. With Daiki at a separate school and not speaking to her, Tetsuna finding a new partner was bound to happen sooner or later, and that partner had just happened to be Kagami. Even so, Satsuki hated that things had turned out this way for her two friends.

As she only knew parts of their situation, she couldn't quite say whose fault it was, if anyone's. All she knew was that Daiki being Daiki had said something harsh and inconsiderate without realizing that he had done so until it was too late. And he and Tetsuna had both suffered from it.

While her childhood friend was constantly fighting with his new teammates, Tetsuna seemed to be adapting quite well. Satsuki turned and watched as Seirin's team filed out of the restaurant, talking amongst themselves. They were an interesting group of people with an entire spectrum of personalities. Their basketball team was brand new, and had no championship victories as of yet. But what Satsuki found the most important was that they valued collaboration and respected each other's strengths and weaknesses. It was what their team at Teiko had been like at first, unproved but _together_.

"Tsuki-chan." Satsuki jumped when Tetsuna suddenly appeared besides her. Even after knowing her for three years, there were times when she was still surprised by Tetsuna's sudden appearances. Tetsuna was carrying a cardboard box, and had a slight upwards tilt to the corners of her mouth. "Look what I found."

Satsuki peered into the box and saw a small black and white puppy with blue eyes. It was wagging its tail happily and seemed to be smiling up at them. "It's so cute!" she squealed, picking it up. Riko, Seirin's coach, seemed to share the same sentiment and rushed over to where the other two girls were standing. She and Riko took turns holding the little puppy while Tetsuna and the rest of Seirin's team watched them with raised eyebrows.

"Doesn't he look like someone?" Riko asked upon closer inspection of the puppy. Everyone looked to the puppy, then to Tetsuna.

"The eyes! The eyes are the same!" Hyuuga exclaimed.

"Okay! Your name will be Tetsuna Number 2!" Koganei declared.

"What's up with that name?" Satsuki pouted. She turned to her friend. "Hey, Tetsu-chan, what do you think?"

Tetsuna blinked at her. "I guess it's alright. What do you want to call him?"

Satsuki tapped a finger to her chin, deep in thought. She looked from the puppy's eyes to Tetsuna's. They really were exactly the same, both blue like the sky. "That's it!" she said smiling. "His name will be Sora!"

Tetsuna had no complaints to that, and neither did her team. They crowded around Sora, petting his head and taking pictures.

"Hey, I've been wondering," Riko began, gesturing to get their attention. She looked over to where Kagami was hiding, huddled behind a store sign. "What are you doing, Kagami-kun?"

The redhead looked over to them with a scared and embarrassed look. "Uh, well…I really can't handle dogs."

Satsuki found this hilarious, and slapped a hand over her mouth to keep herself from laughing out loud. Her laughs came out muffled and her body trembled with them. Tetsuna elbowed her admonishingly, though she was smiling as well.

"What are we going to do with him?" Riko wondered.

"I guess I can take him home with me," Tetsuna said, picking Sora up. He licked her cheek merrily, as if agreeing with her.

"Okay!" Riko said, clapping her hands together. "Well, let's get going before it starts to rain again."

They all parted ways until Satsuki, Tetsuna, and Kagami were the only ones left.

The redhead had finally come out of hiding, though he was maintaining a large distance between himself and Sora. However, the puppy seemed to take this as an invitation to run over to Kagami, and started running in circles around him. The redhead panicked, letting out a short yelp, and hopped around, trying to avoid Sora. Tetsuna sighed, looking a little amused, and went to pick Sora up, taking him away from Kagami.

"Sora won't hurt you, you know?" she said.

Kagami frowned. "You never know what dogs will do. And why 'Sora'?"

"It's a pretty name," Tetsuna said shrugging while Satsuki merrily declared, "Because his eyes are the same color as the sky!"

The redhead looked at them oddly, then eyed Sora warily, taking a step back as the dog barked at him.

Tetsuna's phone buzzed right then, and Satsuki watched as she read the text message and raised an eyebrow.

"What is it?" Satsuki asked.

Tetsuna sighed and held up the message for her to see. "Sei-chan," she replied. The message was brief and to the point, telling her that he wanted to meet up in front of her house in ten minutes. It was so very characteristic of their red-haired captain to send a message like that, and Satsuki smiled wryly. Tetsuna snapped her phone shut and turned to her teammate. "Kagami-kun. Walk Tsuki-chan home. You're dead if something happens to her." A dark look entered her eyes as she glared the redhead down. The look was gone within seconds, and her normal neutral expression returned. "I'll see you at school on Monday." She left with that, taking Sora with her.

Kagami was gaping after her, perhaps a bit surprised at the death threat. He probably had never heard Tetsuna use that tone before, or give him that kind of a dark look.

"You don't have to walk me home, you know," she told Kagami after Tetsuna was out of sight.

The redhead shrugged, having recovered from his shock. "It's ungentlemanly to let a lady walk home alone at night. Besides, I'm sure that Kuroko really would kill me if I left you on your own and something happened. The others as well, I'm sure."

"Yeah," she said in confirmation, chuckling as she started walking in the direction of her home. "With the way they behave, those five are kind of like big brothers, and Tetsu-chan and I are like little sisters. One big happy family!"

Or at least they were, at one point. Now, their 'family' members had grown estranged from one another. Even though she was going to the same school as Daiki, their relationship was not what it had once been, and she had been hearing less and less from the other boys as well. And Tetsuna, like Satsuki, had grown distant from her childhood friend as well, especially with Akashi heading off to Kyoto and her remaining in Tokyo. It seemed like she and Tetsuna were the only ones to have kept in constant contact since graduation.

"That's interesting," Kagami said, and sounded like he really meant it. He fell into step right beside her. "Kuroko hasn't told me much, but something happened between all of you, right? Like you all grew apart, or something."

Satsuki sighed and nodded. "Those five, they used to get along better than they do now. But even though things have changed, they'll all still kill you if you do something to Tetsu-chan."

"So they're all that protective when it comes to her?" Kagami asked.

"Yeah, they're all like that." She wondered if she should warn Kagami about Daiki, who had more reason than the others to want to kill the redhead. But she ended up not saying anything, believing that a warning would do him no good. Or maybe she just wanted to see him shocked when Daiki confronted him, which at this point was an inevitability. Maybe a part of her did despise the redhead, though she tried her best not to feel that way. He was unrelated to the mess of their past, after all.

And she would have to explain that to her friend later, even if he refused to listen. It was vital that Daiki understood that none of this was Kagami's fault so that he wouldn't do something idiotic as a result. But he would likely do that anyways, regardless of what Satsuki would say to him. It was the way he'd always been, unthinking and impulsive, qualities that he seemed to share with Kagami. That only made matters worse, and Satsuki didn't even want to think about what happened if both hotheaded idiots got riled up and started fighting. It would be much worse than the fight between Daiki and Midorima had been, that much was for sure. If that was the case, perhaps she _should_ give him a fair warning then.

"What did Midorin say to you earlier?" Satsuki asked, remembering Midorima telling Kagami something as he left, and the confused look of the redhead's face that followed.

Kagami frowned. "He told me that there are two members of the Generation of Miracles in Tokyo: himself and someone named Aomine Daiki." He looked to Satsuki for confirmation and she nodded slowly. "He said that we'd face each other in the championship league and that he and I are the same type of player."

So Midorima had warned Kagami about Daiki, or at least alerted the redhead to his existence. That made things easier for her as she no longer needed to think about whether or not to tell him. "I don't really get what he meant by that," Kagami went on, "but I'm guessing that he's pretty strong, too." Again, he looked to her for confirmation, and this time her nod was shallower as her thoughts began to spin, thinking of what would happen when the two finally met. "I guess I can ask Kuroko to tell me more about him."

Satsuki opened her mouth to tell him—tell him what, exactly? Not to ask Tetsuna about Daiki? And how would she explain that request anyways? Say that asking Tetsuna about Daiki wouldn't be a good idea because of something that happened in the past? It wasn't that simple, and she could not possibly simplify the situation for fear of a misunderstanding were she to tell Kagami anything.

It seemed to Satsuki that the situation had stopped being simple the moment that Daiki had started to see Tetsuna as something more than a friend all the way back in first year.

So she said nothing more to Kagami as they walked towards her apartment, and they remained silent until they arrived. She then turned to the redhead, finally voicing a certain question that had been nagging at her mind.

"How do you feel about Tetsu-chan?" she asked, trying to keep her voice neutral.

"She's a strong player," Kagami replied without missing a beat. "Though not in the typical sense. I mean, she can't shoot or anything like that, but she has a great mind for coming up with plans, and those passes are one of a kind. It's hard to keep up with those passes at times, but they're incredibly useful in matches. I can see how she played with the Generation of Miracles."

Satsuki smiled a little. "While it's nice to hear that you think that way of her skills, I wasn't asking about what you think of her as a player. I was asking how you _feel_ about her. You know, as a person."

Kagami froze at that, several emotions flitting over his face at a speed that was too fast for even Satsuki to analyze. He gaped at her and opened and closed his hand, as if grasping for the right words. "I…" he began, but seemed to be unable to finish the thought. This seemed to confuse him, as if he wasn't quite sure where this hesitance was coming from. "She's interesting," he finally managed. "She cares about you guys a lot, and is very determined when she makes up her mind to do something. She's…I don't know. She's interesting. Why are you asking?"

"Oh, no reason," Satsuki said lightly. "Just curious."

So Midorima had been right after all. She had doubted that he was wrong, but seeing Kagami like this was an undeniable confirmation of the redhead's budding feelings. She had seen the way he looked at her at the end of the game, and so had Daiki. And unlike her, Daiki hadn't needed this confirmation to know. After all, he'd been in the same place as Kagami before, admiring Tetsuna at a distance while trying to sort out his feelings. He would recognize the way Kagami looked at Tetsuna faster than anyone.

Things were going to get even more complicated from here on out, as if they weren't already. Dealing with all of this would be stressful, even more so when Kagami came to terms with his feelings. Especially if he decided to voice these feelings to Tetsuna, which would no doubt put her in an uncomfortable spot.

But there was still time yet before Kagami worked out just what, exactly, he felt for Tetsuna. The redhead seemed as oblivious as Daiki, if not more. It had taken him three whole months—from the start of school all the way to the beginning of summer vacation—to figure out his feelings, and Satsuki had been watching him every step of the way. She figured it out long before him but didn't tell him as she believed it was something that he needed to work out for himself.

Maybe Tetsuna and Daiki could work things out in the time that it took Kagami to realize his feelings. It was wishful thinking on her part, just like hoping that her and Tetsuna's plan for defeating the Miracles was. But there was no way of knowing how things would turn out just yet, so she would stick to that thinking for now.

"Thanks for walking me back," she said to Kagami.

He nodded at her, still a little lost in his thoughts. Once he had wandered away, still thinking deeply, Satsuki walked the remaining few blocks to Daiki's apartment.

Her heart hammered in her chest as she walked up the stairs to the second floor where he lived. Even as she knocked on his door, she was still uncertain of what she wanted—needed to say to him.

The door opened, and the moment he saw her standing there, his eyes narrowed and he looked like he'd very much like to slam the door in her face.

"Well, you look better than Midorin does," she said, taking note of his injuries. He had applied a small bandage to the left side of his face, and there were a few nicks here and there, but that was it.

Daiki glowered at her. "What do you want?"

"Aomine-kun," she said, stepping forward to place herself firmly in the doorway. "We need to talk about Tetsu-chan."

He looked away from her. "There's nothing to say."

"Yes, there is," she argued. "I'm sorry that you had to find out about her and Kagami-kun that way, but I wasn't trying to keep it from you. I was going to tell you."

"Oh yeah?" he questioned, turning to face her. "When?"

She thought about what Midorima had said earlier about there never being a good time to reveal the truth. "When the time was right," she said stubbornly, knowing that it was extremely unconvincing.

Daiki scoffed.

"Tetsu-chan isn't trying to replace you," she pressed on. "And this situation isn't Kagami-kun's fault either."

"So it's mine, then?"

"That's not what I was saying!" she protested. He scoffed once more, and she pursed her lips. "Despite the regrettable things that have happened, no one is at fault here. But if you don't do something soon, it _will_ be your fault if Tetsu-chan decided that she want to be with someone else." Daiki looked to her then, looking like he'd like to protest but not quite able to find the words to do so. Maybe because he saw that she was right. "I may not know the details of what happened, and I'm not asking you for them, but you _did_ hurt her back in third year. And you haven't apologized for that yet. And you saw how Kagami-kun was looking at her earlier. He _likes_ her, even if he isn't aware of that. If you don't do anything then Kagami-kun will—"

"Satsuki," Daiki interjected, looking away once more. She couldn't quite read the expression on his face right then. "I don't want to talk about this right now. I need to…think about all this. Just leave me alone for a while, okay?"

"Aomine-kun—"

" _Please._ "

That got to her.

While she wouldn't exactly call him rude, but saying 'please' was rare for him. Then again, their third year had left a mark on all of them. She nodded slowly, and prepared to leave, stopping when Daiki's hesitant voice called out to her.

"Her wrist. Is it okay?"

She smiled at that. "It's perfectly fine. Tetsu-chan has gotten a lot stronger since then."

He didn't smile, though his stance relaxed considerably, and that was good enough for her.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

"That was a really risky move, pulling out that pass like that," Akashi said by way of greeting as she approached her house. He was standing by the front gate, leaning against the metal gate.

She raised a brow at him. "It's good to see you too, Sei-chan. How are you doing?"

"I'm serious, Tetsuna," he said, clearly not in the mood to exchange greetings.

"I know it was risky," she said with a sigh. "But it was the only way to get around Takao-kun. And besides, it turned out fine."

He held out a hand. "Let me see." She considered arguing with him on that but decided against it. She was running out of energy and dealing with her childhood friend often required lots of it so she just held out her wrist to him without a word. "It seems fine," he said at last, though he was still frowning.

"It _is_ fine," she insisted. "My wrist is uninjured and now I know I can use the pass again in the future."

 _Not that I particularly want to,_ she added.

She had been holding onto that pass for three years now, and it made her happy to have finally gotten a chance to use it. And she had been ecstatic when it had finally worked without resulting in injury, and she had stepped forward, a wild grin of her face, prepared to hold out her fist and bump it against _his_ like they always did after they completed one of their passes that resulted in a scored basket.

But it wasn't with Daiki that she had completed the pass.

It was with Kagami, and while she didn't exactly dislike the redhead, and it had been _her_ who told him about that pass, she still felt disappointed when she saw Kagami there, looking a bit surprised, but also pleased.

"I suppose," Akashi said with a frown. "Risk of injury aside, it worked out rather well with Kagami."

"Yes," Tetsuna agreed, though she wasn't happy to do so. _But it wasn't with_ him.

That continued to bother her, especially now that she knew that Daiki had seen her perform that pass with Kagami. Had seen her use a pass that was meant for him and no one else, partly because he was the only one strong enough to catch that crazy pass, and partly because she had wanted it to be him who caught it.

Perhaps she already felt something for him then, all the way back in first year, even though she didn't realize the extent of those feelings until third.

"Just don't overexert yourself with that pass," Akashi told her, breaking through her thoughts. "And…" he looked a bit hesitant now, and that caught Tetsuna off guard as she hadn't seen him like that since before the Emperor appeared. "You'll be playing against Daiki soon."

Tetsuna pinched her lips together. She knew that it would happen, had been mentally preparing for it, but now that the match was so close, she still wasn't quite ready, even if her and Satsuki's plan included playing against Daiki. Her thoughts were interrupted by a bark.

"What," Akashi began, eyes narrowing as he stared at something by her feet, "is that."

Tetsuna looked to her side and saw Sora there, looking up at her happily and wagging his tail. "This is Sora," she said, picking the puppy up. "I found him outside the restaurant we were eating at. Satsuki named him. But that aside," she went on, voice growing hesitant. "I heard that Shin-chan and Daiki got into a fight."

He arched a brow at her. "And where did you hear that from?"

"I ran into Shin-chan and Ryou-chan at the restaurant."

Akashi sighed, suddenly looking very tired. "They had a disagreement." There was an oddly amused look on his face as he said those words, as if laughing at an inside joke that she was not a part of. Tetsuna nodded, knowing that that was all she'd be getting out of him. And Midorima had said something similar to that, hadn't he?

He was staring at her wrist again, and she let out a long breath. "It really is fine, Sei-chan. You worry too much."

He gave her a grim smile. "Perhaps. And remember what I said about not overexerting yourself. Goodbye, Tetsuna."

He reached down and patted Sora on the head, looking somewhat amused, then straightened up and inclined his head at her in farewell. She waved to him as he walked away, and once he was out of eyesight, she let out another long breath.

"That was Sei-chan," she said to Sora, smiling at the puppy. "He and I have known each other since we were babies. But we've grown distant recently. I miss the old Sei-chan, the one that wasn't always playing with people the way he does now. I miss the rest of them used to be as well—Shin-chan and Ryou-chan and Hi-chan and Daiki. And that's why," she went on, no longer talking to Sora, but to herself as she looked up at the night sky. "That's why Tsuki-chan and I made a plan to defeat all of them, and bring things back to the way they used to be."

There was a stretch of silence, then Sora barked merrily, blue eyes bright.

* * *

 **Thanks for reading!**


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